Week Thirteen

This week I worked with The Sower and once again with the Emily Fountain. The Winter Park Paint Out is happening soon and the most prevalent of the sculptures needed a touch up to really make their patinas shine for the myriad of guests that will be visiting over the next couple of weeks. The Sower is meant to represent Jesus as a "sower" of teachings and falls in line with Albin's religiosity that is expressed in various sculptures on the premise. The casting was already in great shape before I cleaned and waxed it, and now it looks even better. The Emily Fountain, being the centerpiece of the courtyard, also received a cleaning and waxing to really bring out the splendor of the work. The work on the Emily Fountain will also be the last of my work with the sculptures for the remainder of the internship as I'll be shifting my focus towards the accession and deaccession process with the Holy Art of Imperial Russia collection that we have at the museum. Following that, I will be assisting Rachel with the Winter Park Paint Out and that will round out my internship.

Week Twelve

This week I worked with the Forest Idyl and Mother sculptures. Forest Idyl is positioned right outside the main courtyard and is inspired by the Song of Hiawatha. Its a quaint sculpture of a woman holding a doe while a mother deer is next to them and tending to her offspring. The sculptures itself is quite intricate; cleaning and waxing it took more time and attention than I had anticipated but the work was worth it as it looks much better now.

Mother is positioned on the periphery of the premise right on Osceola Drive and is a sculpture of a mother with a child standing next to her and a baby cradled in her left arm. This has actually proven to be the most challenging of the sculptures simply due to its sheer size. Its probably the largest of the sculptures on site and took more time and wax than any of the other works to tend to.

Week Eleven

This week I've continued my work with the PastPerfect catalogue and developing the backgrounds for each of the sculptures. Sherwood has more to say about some works than others and this diminishes the reports I can create, however, the corresponding catalogue provided by Rachel has been helpful in creating links and digging up information that may be lacking in the book. The museum's physical catalogue is a trove of information about Polasek and his work, and a good portion of it remains un-digitized, which requires that I physically seek out the information. Although somewhat of a burden, it also has reinforced my research skills that I've developed throughout my undergraduate career and has taught me how to more efficiently parse for the pertinent information.

In terms of work with the statues, this week I tackled the Man Reaching for the Moon. Polasek was inspired by the ambitions of space travel in the early 60's and dedicated the piece to those cultural and scientific movement that was occurring. The statue itself was in a somewhat poor condition; various calcium deposits had formed and the patina had faded and become dull. I washed the statue and then applied a wax coat, but this specific piece required greater attention due to its immediate presence upon entering the premises and its size. It took a day of work on this specific statue but it was worth it to make it look as nice as it currently does. This was also another instance of having to work with an immense piece of art, much like The Risen Christ, and again I learned about how to manage issues of verticality when working with the sculptures.

Week Ten

All is going well at the museum. I've continued working with the statues and making sure they're looking as nice as possible for the upcoming events the museum has planned. In addition to the maintenance of the statues I've begun to fill out the PastPerfect records with greater details and have tried to include the origins and stories of each of the sculptures. For this I used Ruth Sherwood's biography of Albin Polasek, Carving His Own Destiny. The book has provided some wonderful background for the inspiration of the artwork as well as the context in which they were thought of. As for the statues I worked with, this week I dedicated my time to making sure that the Risen Christ look as good as possible. The statue is quite tall which made the process a little more intricate than other pieces I've worked on, but overall it was a good learning experience and taught me about the vertical challenges that some curators may face in their time.

Week Nine

Spring Break! I hope the statues are doing well without me...

Week Eight

Due to some transportation issues (i.e. my car breaking down)  I was unable to work on the statues during the week, however, I managed to fix the issue by the time of our Maslenitsa celebration here at the museum! It went very well, everyone had a great time learning about the holiday and certainly they all enjoyed the bliny Rachel made. Overall the celebration was a hit, we had somewhere around 200 unique visitors who were very receptive to the presentations (troika dancers and Russian holy art lecture) and activity stations (bliny, lady maslenitsa doll assembly, etc.). I think our visitors leaned a lot about Russian culture on that day, and the Russians present were great about discussing their cultures which allowed me to learn even more about the holiday and its significance.

Week Seven

This week I continued working with the sculptures. First was the Pilgrim at the Gates, one of my favorite sculptures we have at the Gardens. It depicts an ascetic pilgrim knocking at the gates of what would presumably be heaven. The size of the sculpture alone is impressive but after detailing it and waxing the piece, I really came to appreciate the attention to detail Polasek paid to his work. The garment the pilgrim wears around his waist moves in an almost lifelike fashion and his solemn expression conveys a distinct feeling of resolution. Up next was the bronze casting of Pan, the mythological Greek god. The statue is in fair condition but the weather has certainly degraded the quality of the bronze over time and a new wax coat in addition to scrubbing off dirt and scum was needed.

Week Six

I finished working on the stations of the cross, all the pieces now look nice and shiny. Only four of them were made of bronze, the rest of fiberglass, so in terms of waxing and buffing there wasn't that much to do. I used the time to make sure that they all looked great since its one of the major pieces of the collection and the initial installation guests encounter when exiting the gallery. On Friday I'll continue working with the sculptures as the weather has been generally fair and good for working outside. I've also almost finished with the condition report updates on the collection and will have that completed within the next couple of weeks.

Week Five

The weather has gotten better and conditions are now perfect for working again with the sculptures. The clear weather has also allowed me to do conservation assessments in between treatment of the sculptures. This means that the excel file containing the information about the sculptures I'm working with is getting filled out. I never thought I would be so proud of a spreadsheet. Aside from updating the catalog, I've been working with the 12 stations of the cross which are bronze and fiberglass castings of the crucifixion of Jesus. Polasek was a devoutly religious man and this is apparent throughout the collection stored in the museum. I've only partially completed the restoration process on the 12 castings, but by the middle of next week I should be finished and will start working on the other bronze sculptures. The goal is to have all of the bronze castings done by the middle of March and then try to get all of the concrete sculptures within a time span of two to three weeks after that.

Week Four

Due to the poor weather and consistent rain throughout the week, I was limited in my conservation work for the week. Instead of working directly with the sculptures present on site, I worked with their entries in the PastPerfect system, ensuring that condition details were updated and added further information where possible.

In addition to this, I finished the informational poster for the Maslenitsa celebrations in early March. Rachel and I discussed the various events we could do and decided on what ways I could help with the set up and operation for the day. I'll be helping with the Bliny (pancake) decorations which promises to be a good time. I'm also excited for the Russian dancers who will be attending and performing during the celebration.

Week Three

During the third week of the internship I continued my curatorial work and maintenance of the PastPerfect database. I restored the Maiden of the Roman Campagna which simply needed a refinishing as it had no significant damage or calcium deposits like the previous statues I worked on. In addition to the statue I also started working on text panels for the upcoming Maslenitsa celebration we'll be having at the museum. Maslenitsa is an Eastern Slavic tradition which is celebrated before the Great Lent and I'll be responsible for producing panels that inform the public about the holiday as well as hosting the Bliny (pancake) decorating station. The celebration seems promising and I'm sure everyone here will work hard to make sure our guests have a great time.

Week Two

During the second week of my internship I continued the previous work I was introduced to. I began work on updating the PastPerfect catalog to include objects on the site which hadn't been included on the catalog, including the two Limestone sculptures made by Walter Arnold as well as the terra cotta sculpture by De LaRobia near the chapel. Additionally I also updated some of the status of the pieces I have been working with with regard to their condition and any additional information which could prove useful to future catalog viewers.

In terms of curator work, I cleaned and waxed the Underwater Garden column on the right side of the apartment as it had some calcium deposits which needed tending to. The piece looks much nicer now with its new wax coat and should be fine for about another year, still I will keep an eye on it for any future marks. In addition to the Underwater Garden, the statue of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, sculpted by Ruth Sherwood, has received a cleaning and wax treatment. The piece was generally in good condition, however there were certain spots and calcium deposits which needed treatment.

Week One

The Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens has so far presented itself as a compelling place to work. In this first week of my internship I've become acquainted with the individuals who run the museum on the front and back end, and have also become familiar with the narrative of Polasek's life as well as his work.

Polasek's work reflects his Czech-American heritage and religious devotion while also maintaining a sense of classical representation. Even for someone who has very little artistic background, like myself, there is plenty of depth to be appreciated in his work and as such I'm excited to be working closely with some of his sculptures.

So far I've learned how to navigate PastPerfect, the cataloging system the museum uses for its possessions, and also have been taught by Rachel Frisby, the curator, how to properly restore and maintain bronze sculptures. I worked with the Emily Fountain at the entrance square of the museum and was taught how to properly wash, wax and maintain delicate sculptures such as Emily.