You may not think about the potential dust that could collect in-between the teeth of Tiger by Felipe Archuleta on display in the first floor folk art galleries, but it is the job of Susan Edwards, conservation technician, to make sure he has a clean smile.
In the quiet hours before the museum opened, I observed Susan during one of her regular rounds. She told me that if dust accumulates, it can hold onto moisture which can attract insects. She showed me how she uses a special variable speed vacuum which is set to a very low suction. She held the nozzle at an angle to the sculpture and gently dusted the surface with a soft brush. I noticed that the vacuum nozzle had a screen taped over it. She said that just in case a piece of the sculpture happens to flake off, it can be caught by the screen and re-attached later. During the entire dusting process, she was also taking the opportunity to observe the overall condition of the piece. So, the next time you don't see any dust on a sculpture, you know Susan has been there.
 

 

-- Mary
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Smithsonian American Art Museum
McEvoy Auditorium, Lower Level

Materials and techniques used by American painters are an important but largely unknown part of the history of American art. In American Painters on Technique: The Colonial Period to 1860, the first comprehensive study of this topic, art conservators Lance Mayer and Gay Myers draw on three decades of research to compile and analyze first-person descriptions of American painters at work. Consulting a variety of sources from letters and journals to shopkeepers' bills, Mayer and Myers explore the experimentation and innovation of artists like Benjamin West, Thomas Sully, and Rembrandt Peale.

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