Lisa Duncan, Art Conservator, LLC

Connecting to Collections (C2C) meetings on Preservation

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:24:19 +0000

Connecting to Collections (C2C) held two meetings in Eugene and Portland to determine pressing preservation needs for Oregon collections. Meetings in Bend, Medford and Pendleton are scheduled for the fall. Funding for the meetings has been generously provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and allocated through the Oregon Museum Association. Please stay tuned for more information on the outcome of the meetings.

For more information, check the Oregon Museum Associations website through the link below.

http://www.oregonmuseums.org/News.asp?NewsID=294

Arrival of book, Issues in the Conservation of Photographs

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:14:50 +0000

The long awaited release of Issues in the Conservation of Photographs has arrived! Order your copy today!

Edited by Debra Hess Norris and Jennifer Jae Gutierrez

Getty Conservation Institute
752 pages, 7 x 10 inches
36 color and 55 b/w illustrations, 111 line drawings
ISBN 978-1-60606-000-1
paper, $70.00

Click to buy through the Getty Conservation Institute

A dry summer after a wet spring

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:53:44 +0000

I have been working on several projects this summer. I learned one of many lessons this spring working on a diploma made of parchment. Lesson # 27: Don’t expect to flatten it during a wet spring. More recently, the nice days have allowed time for light bleaching and been great inpainting weather. Light bleaching is an oxidative bleach used to brighten stained artwork. It has been used for centuries–remember when our great grandmothers would hang their white linens out to the sun after washing? It was not only to dry them, but also to bleach them.

Light bleaching a project

Flattening a parchment on the suction table

James Rosenquist

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:40:58 +0000

I completed treatment on James Rosenquist’s Welcome to the Water Planet: Space Dust. There were small white accretions on the surface that were of concern. The accretions were mold-like, but could also have been a bloom. Bloom has been identified on several contemporary pieces and is composed of surfactants. Surfactants are used to disperse acrylic paint in water and leach out over time. A similar bloom can also be present on oil paint layers. In oil paintings the composition of the bloom is palmitic acid, a fatty acid found in oil paints.

Conservation of the Truman Home wallpaper

admin — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:23:07 +0000

Conservation of the Truman Home wallpaper is at full speed. I spent a week in May helping conservator Thomas M. Edmondson, a mentor, finish treatment on two walls in the Truman Home dining room. Tom has been working on this project, still ongoing, since Spring of 2009. This week was a major push because the home is reopening to the public on Memorial Day after an extended closure due to installation of a new HVAC system, conservation of the wallpaper, and repair of failing plaster walls. More information about the preservation project at the Truman Home can be found at the National Park Service website and through the links below.

The work this week involved inpainting fills and cracks to reintegrate areas of loss. We used both pastel colored pencils and also gouache opaque watercolor paints.

links:

http://www.nps.gov/parkoftheweek/hstr.htm

http://www.nps.gov/hstr/historyculture/truman-home-conservation-and-construction-projects.htm

http://www.examiner.net/news/x124604456/Truman-home-getting-some-improvements

Vote today for the Seattle-Puget Sound Initiative

admin — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 20:24:14 +0000

Support your local historic places by casting your vote today for 25 historic preservation projects. See the posting below:

The Seattle-Puget Sound Partners in Preservation Initiative!
Help American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation give away $1 million in preservation grants to Seattle-Puget Sound area historic places.

From April 15 – May 12, vote here for the places you would like to see receive preservation funding. Each person can vote once daily for any of the 25 historic places. The winner of the public vote is guaranteed to receive a grant, so your votes really do count!

Vote at:

www.PartnersinPreservation.com

Save America’s Treasures!

admin — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 18:47:53 +0000

Contact your congressman immediately to advocate for preservation! Last week, President Obama released his 2011 budget that would eliminate funding for Save America’s Treasures (SAT) and Preserve America (PA), and cut funding for National Heritage Areas by 50%. Without this funding conservation jobs will be drastically reduced and will thus lead to the deterioration of our cultural heritage. I had the opportunity to work on a Save America’s Treasures grant at the Center for Creative Photography and would hate to see this program disappear. Save America’s Treasures alone has been responsible for more than 16,000 jobs and the preservation of numerous collections since it was created just ten years ago.

You can contact your congressman directly or fill out an online request through the National Trust for Historic Preservation website.

The Graphics Atlas: A resource for print identification

admin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:19:02 +0000

“Graphics Atlas is a new online resource that brings sophisticated print identification and characteristic exploration tools to archivists, curators, historians, collectors, conservators, educators, and the general public. The Image Permanence Institute at the Rochester Institute of Technology began initial development of this resource in 2006.”

Link below:

http://www.graphicsatlas.org/

Information on Preserving Audio Visual Media

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:09:12 +0000

The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) released a series of videos, A Race Against Time: Preserving AV Media, that are worth a look. The videos are well done and discuss the many facets of preserving these collections.

follow the link below:

http://www.ccaha.org/education/videos

The National Park Service on Cold Storage

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:00:56 +0000

The National Park Service released information on cold storage in collections. It is worth a read and a viewing of the videos.

Follow the link below:

http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/coldstorage/html/intro1_1.html

After going to the link, the videos are located via a flash player at the bottom right of the screen.