Taking the bus to Ephesus by way of the Getty Villa

View of the entrance to the Getty Villa
from the bus stop across the street.
The building at the top of the hill is a private residence
and has nothing to do with the Getty.

It’s no secret that I am a Getty Villa addict. I love going there for any reason. This past Saturday there was a very good reason—a lecture entitled Living in Roman Luxury: Terrace House 2 in Ephesus. The lecturer, Sabine Ladstätter, is director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute and excavation director at Ephesus in Turkey.


Excavation of a section of Terrace House 2 in Ephesus with frescoes and a mosaic floor.
Photo: OeAI-Vienna Niki Gail

On a Greek cruise several years ago I had the fortune to visit Ephesus. However, as Dr. Ladstätter mentioned, sadly we were one of those groups who raced through the tourist area in less than an hour. But afterwards we were given plenty of time to spend our money on souvenirs (I bought two refrigerator magnets, good thing as one of them broke!)

The Terrace House area is a separate admission from the other areas and because of time constraints, not many people get to visit this excavation.

Of course the main reason I attended the lecture (other than having been to Ephesus) was because of the above photo on the Getty website: a beautiful mosaic in excellent condition. Apparently, many mosaics were discovered in the Terrace House residences.

In the two and a half days we were in Turkey I was extremely impressed and hope some day to return for a longer period of time. Perhaps next time I will be able to stay in Ephesus long enough to explore it thoroughly.

I almost didn’t make it to the lecture. A friend who was going with me cancelled. And it looked like a big storm was coming in. I had planned to go by bus and didn’t want to get soaked, but after checking the weather forecast I decided to brave it.

It so happens October 20 was National Archaeology Day. I don’t know if that was part of the reason the museum was overflowing with visitors. I heard somebody say they were turning people away at the gate who didn’t have a reservation. And the lecture hall was standing room only. So one lucky person on standby got to take my friend’s seat. I was happy it didn’t go to waste.

Since the Metro Expo Line train station arrived in Culver City, the bus lines that cover my part of town (LA Metro, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus and Culver City Bus) have tweaked their bus routes to stop near the station. So now I am a short walk from the Line #534 Express bus stop that takes me all the way to the front gate of the Getty Villa via the Santa Monica Freeway. I used to have to take a bus several miles east to the bus center on Fairfax, change to the #534, then backtrack all the way west again. This made for a very long journey to the Villa. So, even more good fallout from the train!

Once you get to the Getty Villa, you show your entry ticket to the guard, then press the button for the shuttle to take you up to the museum. Unfortunately, there is no accommodation for visitors to walk up to the top of the hill. Personally, I think this was a huge oversight when they remodeled the museum in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Maybe there were insurance reasons, I don’t know, but there are plenty of stairs inside the complex so it makes no sense to me. It’s almost like they are discouraging public transportation as it can take longer to wait for the van as it would to walk up. Plus, leaving the museum it is a circuitous journey around the back of the compound and through the streets back to the gate.

View from bus stop on Pacific Coast Highway looking towards Malibu.

The bus stop for the homeward bound part of the trip is on the ocean side of Pacific Coast Highway. Two bus seats are perched precariously in the dirt at the top of a small slope above the beach.

View across Santa Monica Bay with Palos Verdes on horizon at right center.

But what a view! Even though it was a gloomy, cloudy day, the perspective looking out across the Santa Monica Bay to the south and Malibu to the north is astonishing. Must be one of the best bus stops in the world!

In case you are interested, the bus came at 4:00pm and I was walking through my front door at 4:55pm.  I could hardly make that kind of time in my car!

Please click on the photos so you can see tham at a decent size!

(Photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

 

 

 

My two-day vacation at the Getty Villa

I’ve been to the Getty Villa a gazillion times but I’ve always been there for a specific exhibit or a lecture or a class. I’ve never taken any of the regular tours before so I decided to remedy that. My excuse came when I discovered that Lillian Sizemore, a mosaic artist and teacher, was scheduled to give a talk and a demonstration at the Villa. So I decided to make a reservation two days in a row and do and see all the things I have never done and seen before plus view a couple of current exhibits.

On Thursday at 11:30am I started out with Point of View: Lillian Sizemore on Mosaics. As everybody knows, I have a love affair with ancient Greek and Roman mosaics. Although I certainly appreciate mosaics as an art form, my personal “point of view” comes from a historical, sociological and architectural (not to mention archaeological) perspective. I enjoy looking at an ancient mosaic and imagining how and where it would have been used, and by whom. So, although I have seen the few mosaics in the Getty collection a multitude of times, it was a treat for me to gain an artful insight into this delightful medium.

First up was the Mosaic Floor with Medusa (about 115 - 150 A.D.). Lillian pointed out the concentric circles, creating alternating black and white spirals. She mentioned that the perception might be that the ancient artists weren’t that clever but her view is that they were very intelligent, knowing exactly what they were doing. I agree. They may not have had the benefit of computers or technology, but given the tools they had to work with, their work is amazing. Personally, I have always been fascinated with geometric designs created with such implements as a compass and triangle.

Next we looked at a fountain, a copy of that in the garden of the House of the Great Fountain at Pompeii. This is my second favorite mosaic piece at the Getty Villa (oh, but it’s so hard to choose!).

My favorite mosaic in the Villa collection is Floor Mosaic with a Lion Attacking an Onager (Roman about 150). I once gave a half-hour presentation on this one mosaic. I made a full-scale print and laid it on the floor under the mosaic (which is installed horizontally on the wall) so my audience could look at it from its intended viewing point. Because of the lack of space, and museum convention, we have the unhappy situation of looking at floor mosaics from the wrong perspective as if they are wall paintings. Even when they are presented horizontally they are usually shown on a raised bed so most people never have the joy of viewing a floor mosaic from the correct position. Hence my interest in preserving mosaics in situ wherever and whenever possible (but that is a whole other blog—or book.)

When I talk about mosaics I am always amazed at the interest from my audience, be it friends or classmates or artists, maybe because mosaics have always been brushed aside as not being very important—at least the ancient kind—and therefore there is not much ongoing conversation about them compared to painting or sculpture. Or maybe people are merely being polite!

Separating the figurative image from the background in some mosaics is a single or double row of tesserae set in a curving line in the field color. I always thought of this as the lazy mosaicist’s way of defining the outline of the figure (animal, plant, human) instead of attempting to cut all the pieces so that they butt up to the colored pieces evenly, but I never realized this was actually a technique used as a rule. Aesthetically I still don’t like it, although now I know it was a purposeful technique I have more respect for it.

We moved on to Mosaic Floor with a Boxing Scene (about A.D. 175). When I tour the Getty with friends I am often asked why this is not my favorite mosaic in the collection as it is in as perfect condition as any in the museum. It is truly wonderful and I love the fact that the corners of the frame were not planned well, which says to me that the center emblamata piece was designed at the workshop and delivered to the site where the perimeter geometric mosaics were installed in place. I was happy that Lillian pointed out the corner misalignments as I think most people do not notice this. So why isn’t it my favorite? It does have an interesting story, but just not my cup of tea.

My next event was the Architecture Tour. Although I know the Getty Villa pretty well I enjoyed the perspective of the guide. He actually apologized for his interest in the mathematical proportions but I found that the most interesting part of the tour. And, in case you are wondering how the Romans figured anything out in the system of V, VII and X, they did not use that for their calculations. They had an abacus to do their calculations. One of the Chinese tourists in our group stated that, of course, the abacus had come from China. Our tour guide was not so sure, pointing out that because of trade between the two civilizations at the time, nobody knows who thought of it first.

I then joined the Culinary Garden Tour. I own a couple of cookbooks with recipes of food prepared during the Roman Empire (yes, I am sure I lived during that period as I feel so at home with everything that occurred during that time). The docent described the plants, herbs and fruits growing in the Getty gardens that were used for culinary purposes.

My last tour of the day was Life in a Roman Villa but it was not what I expected and in any case, by then I was tired and my ADHD was kicking in big time, so it was time to leave for the day.

Once again I was in awe of the majestic views of the Pacific Ocean as I drove along Pacific Coast Highway towards Santa Monica and the entrance to the freeway.

Day two of my vacation at the Getty Villa I attended Lillian Sizemore’s Artist-at-Work Demonstration: Mosaics. Lillian is an amazing artist in this very difficult medium. I have tried to put together a few small mosaics myself and it is no easy task, which is why I have such great respect for the ancient mosaicists. Lillian showed us how to cut the stones into pieces of tesserae with the hammer and hardie. As I have managed to cut myself with knives and scissors over the years I am not sure this would be a suitable profession for me!

She had several examples of different kinds of mosaics on display. I was most intrigued by the sample of opus sectile (translated as cut work) which had the effect of looking paper thin.

I wanted to stay longer but I was off to explore the outdoors with the Garden Tour. The Villa has four gardens. One of the most ubiquitous plants in the gardens is the acanthus which inspired the Roman (originally Greek) Corinthian columns. In the herb garden there is a lovely example of an Italian Stone Pine tree.

As I have been to the Getty Villa so many times, on this trip I decided to take some photos of the flooring and walls, so along with a few shots of Lillian’s tour and some photos of the gardens, that is what you will see in the slide show.

I had intended to return to Lillian’s workshop in the afternoon and take some more photos of her working on a mosaic but I made the mistake of answering my phone and duty called. Every time I visit the Villa I think I don’t need to go back for a while as I have seen everything. But there is something magical about that museum that keeps calling me back and I know I will be returning soon.

Click here for photo gallery.

(All photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

I Lived to see Herculaneum

I had the good fortune to snag a ticket for the lecture yesterday at the Getty Villa on Herculaneum: Conserving and Interpreting the Roman Past with architect Gionata Rizzi. Although I've been looking forward to this for weeks I had a relapse of the "fluey thing" and after retreating to my bed for two hours wondered if the trek over there would kill me. But I decided dying doing something I enjoy was better than passing away in bed... how boring. So I got dressed, put gas in the car, and jumped into the worst traffic I have seen in a long time. Fortunately I was meeting a friend who arrived early enough to save two good seats for this sold out event.

The Getty Conservation Institute is a collaborator on the Herculaneum Project for which Gionata Rizzi has worked since 2002 as the architect responsible for developing pilot projects and model designs. He talked about the difficulties involved in preserving and conserving such a large project while maintaining its ambience.

Of course, we all know that Vesuvius erupted in AD 79, and until the 1700s the town of Herculaneum lay protected under tons of volcanic material some 50 feet high. After a couple of centuries of excavation at least one third of Herculaneum now lies exposed to the elements. Structures, paintings, and mosaics that had survived pretty much intact are now being destroyed by the sun and rain and oxidation.

Over the years various contraptions were devised to build covers and roofs to protect the excavation, some of which were very ugly and detracted from the sense of place. The photo above shows one of Rizzi's solutions to provide a roof while maintaining some idea of what the original may have looked like.

Evidently this was Rizzi's first visit to the Getty Villa. He got some laughs (at least from me) by talking about what it was like to leave the ancient Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum and walk into the working replica, which is what the Getty Villa is. He said it was difficult to walk on the marble floor which is an exact copy of the ancient version, which, of course, cannot be walked on. I have been to the Getty Villa so many times (since it first opened in the 1970s) that I definitely take it for granted and no longer even think about what it represents. I should pay more intention to the building itself.

You will be happy to know (I hope) that I didn't die from attending the lecture. And I am certainly glad that I made the effort. Pompeii gets the lion's share of attention but Herculaneum is equally important in our understanding of life in the Roman Empire during that period, and I look forward to learning more about it.

After the lecture we stopped by to see the ongoing exhibit Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity which is a wonderful display of over 180 ancient glass objects from the collection of Erwin Oppenländer and the Getty. About two years ago I took a twelve-week class at the Villa through UCLA Extension. One of my presentations for the class was on ancient glass, specifically Flask in the Shape of a Head (oh, note to the Getty webmaster, this has been bugging me for over a year now, the word is FLASK with a "K," not FLASH with an "H.") I was happy to see my flask is part of the exhibit. Sometimes research for a class can be useful and ever since putting together that presentation I have been fascinated by ancient glass. It's a nice adjunct to my obsession with mosaics!

(Photo: View of the multi-story House of the Telephus Relief with a timber roofing solution. Photo copyright The J. Paul Getty Trust)

Busing to Art

Being forced to live in a state of "less is more" I have now discovered public transportation. In a previous blog I reported on my adventures busing and training to downtown LA with my friend GZ. Since then I have become even more adventurous.
Last Saturday I had a ticket for the lecture on The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani at the Getty Villa and invited GZ. Knowing she had no fear of public transportation I thought it would be fun if we could both find our individual ways there, she from West Hollywood, me from Culver City. She assured me she had a straight shot on the number 2. I took line 33 to Fairfax, then line 584, which dropped me off across the street from the Villa (after a rather convoluted trip that took almost two hours, partly my fault but partly because the West LA Transportation Center is several miles east of me from where I can take a bus to anywhere in the known universe, even if I want to go west).
It turned out her bus had changed the route and she had to walk a mile on Pacific Coast Highway with no sidewalks and traffic coming up behind her at 60 plus miles an hour. Going home we both took the #584 to Fairfax then went our separate ways.
The "Golden Graves" date from around 450-250BC and since the 1930s, archaeologists have uncovered 28 burials. Vani is in the area of today's Georgia, Russia. A highly developed civilization has been discovered that had its own religious and artistic practices, while embracing influences from neighboring cultures.
The kingdom of Colchis gained fame as the destination of Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece, and indeed, the region has proved to be rich in gold.
The gold jewelry and other objects found in the graves are exquisite and sophisticated. Granulated gold (extremely small gold beads the size of termite castings) were intricately imposed on some of the pieces.
There are also non-burial items in the exhibit such as the elephant lamps and some figurines, all equally interesting in the discussion of this artistic culture.
This exhibit goes through October 5, 2009. As parking at both Gettys is now $15, unless you have a car full of people, I would suggest looking at that bus schedule.

So, for something completely different I decided to bus up to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) on Friday. This was a one-hour trip, door to door, and as Fairfax was a mess on a Friday afternoon, I thought that was pretty good time. I was interested to see Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists From Korea at the BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a part of LACMA), otherwise known as the Broad (pronounced "Brode").
It's no secret that I'm not a fan of a lot of contemporary art but I kinda liked this exhibit. I enjoyed walking through HappyHappy at the entrance comprised of strings of brightly colored plastic containers and the chain link fences at the Sixth Street side where you can add your own plastic items. I also liked looking out of the Ahmanson Building to see the swaths of colored fabric criss-crossing the windows.
One of my favorite indoor pieces was the room where there were six movies playing, each one set in different parts of the world. The artist stood still and silent while people passed her by. The passersby became part of the piece too, some ignoring her, some puzzled by her, some smiling or laughing at her presence.
The other was the person-sized stuffed animals. The signage said illegal aliens were inside the costumes as a "performance." One was a rabbit, the other a family of different animals. I found it interesting how my perception changed when for a second I believed there really were people inside, then that they were illegally in this country earning $5 a day for their performance, then the realization that there couldn't be anybody inside.
After that I wandered around the permanent collections, not stopping at anything in particular, just breathing in all the art as a whole, ingesting the peace and serenity.
I walked around outside in the park, viewing the full scale models of the woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers caught in the tar pits tens of thousands of years ago. Climbing the berm to the top of the Page Museum, I saw couples, singles, families, tourists, Angelenos, all enjoying themselves on this wondrous, sun-filled day in southern California... all my problems, dilemmas, unmade decisions, and other troubles of the past months, weeks, and days were nowhere to be found. I was in the moment.

Castle Howard Visited

Brideshead Revisited (made in 1981) is one of those made-for-British-TV masterpieces that will never be equaled, in my opinion. While I enjoyed the 2008 movie version, I was not as captivated emotionally by the characters as I was in the TV version. Having never read the book, I have no idea which version was truer to the author's intention, but I know what I like!

However, the one "character" that still stood up over the span of 27 years was the building that "played" Brideshead in both versions—Castle Howard. Castle Howard is located a few miles north of the city of York (where my Dad was born) in Northern England. It is not a castle in the strict sense of the word—it is not a fortress and there are no turrets to shoot bows and arrows. Built for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle around the turn of the 18th Century, it is one of England's famous stately homes.

On April 25th I attended the lecture at the Getty Villa, Bringing It All Back Home: Grand Tour Collections at Castle Howard in the 18th Century, with the curator of the art collections, Christopher Ridgway.

I was all set for a rather boring, informational lecture, but as I had previously seen the three Roman portrait busts on display at the Villa (which I wrote about previously), I was interested to learn about the rest of the collection.

When the lecture ended more than an hour later I was disappointed—I wanted it to continue for another hour. I was delighted, captivated and intrigued! As well as discussing the fine art collection and the travels of the Howard family (and Rover, the dog) we were treated to an exploration of other facets of maintaining a stately home such as remodeling the toilets and managing the beef herd (and managing those unruly herds of tourists, too!).

As I was leaving the Getty I was ready to drive straight to the airport and hop on a plane to Yorkshire. Castle Howard is now definitely on my short list of places to see in the near future.

In the days subsequent to the lecture I have planned the trip in my head. I am going to stay in that small hotel near Paddington Station (where KJ and I spent a couple of nights on our way to Greece two years ago) and "do" as many museums and galleries in London as I can manage in a week: The V&A, British Museum, National Gallery, the Tates. Then I will travel to Sussex to visit Fishbourne Palace where some wonderful Roman mosaics have been uncovered. Then travel north (all this by train, of course) to visit Castle Howard.

When I still had my corporate job I was planning on Egypt as my next overseas stop, but now I have developed this need to be in England. So Egypt may have to wait, especially as I have no idea how I will raise the funds for any kind of travel at this point. But I know if I focus on this it WILL happen!

Three for a Friday

Conservator Jeff Maish restores the painted decoration on a fragmentary mixing vessel. (See below for photo copyright information.)

This past Friday was one of those days that I could repeat over and over again and never get tired of it. In the morning I did my volunteer gig at the Fowler Museum lab in Westwood, bought some groceries at Whole Foods (skinless sausages made from humanely raised chickens and rainforest coffee), then drove along Sunset Blvd. as it winds its way through upscale neighborhoods and past Will Rogers State Park to Pacific Coast Highway and the Getty Villa.
I visited three exhibitions at the Villa: Reconstructing Identity: A Statue of a God from Dresden, The Getty Commodus: Roman Portraits and Modern Copies, Fragment to Vase: Approaches to Ceramic Restoration. One of my interests in art and archaeology is conservation and preservation. Over the centuries the term "conservation" has had various interpretations. In earlier times, statues that had lost arms or legs, or even heads, were given body parts from unrelated statues in order to make them whole. Today, museums are more likely to display statues with the missing parts, or at least indicate where the original statue leaves off and the restoration begins. Personally, if there is a drawing or photograph of how a statue looked in its original state, I don't mind seeing it restored as it was originally intended to be seen, as long as the restoration parts are clearly identified in documentation displayed nearby.
A Statue of a God from Dresden is a wonderful lesson in conservation history all by itself. You could say it has survived the restoration wars! Everything imaginable happened to the statue since its discovery in the 1600s, and the Getty has done a splendid job in telling its story.
The Getty Commodus is another story, literally. The exhibition explains the difficulties in determining the date of origin of a sculpture. This piece was at first thought to be the work of an Italian sculptor from the late 16th century as it was fashionable at that time (and through the next few centuries) to make copies of ancient works of art. However, after weighing all the clues, it is now thought to be an original ancient sculpture from an archaeological dig.
As interesting as the first two exhibits are, my favorite is Fragment to Vase. In the past, the approach to restoring a fragmented vase was to do everything possible to make it look like an unbroken piece by gluing, painting, cementing... some of this was for purely practical purposes, but it was also done to make it saleable to unsuspecting collectors. In the 20th century it was usually the policy to show plainly the difference between the restored part and the original, sometimes resulting in a not very intelligible piece. The Getty's approach today is to balance aesthetics with preservation, making the patching less obtrusive but distinguishable. I like that idea.
My policy, if possible, is to time my visit to an exhibit so I can go through at my own pace, then if there is a guided tour to participate in that either before or after (after is my preference as then I am already familiar with the subject) which is what I did on Friday.
The drive home along Pacific Coast Highway in the late afternoon was splendid. Usually I am enamored of the sun sparkling on the calm blue of the Pacific. But this drive was in a storm and the ocean was heaving up murky, dangerous-looking waves as my windshield wipers were having a hard time keeping up with the deluge of wet stuff falling from the sky. Fortunately, the traffic was relatively light for that time of day on a Friday, maybe because everybody left work early for the safety of their homes.
As usual, I am glad I made the effort to see the exhibit. I have wasted countless hours of my life watching detective shows on TV and putting together jigsaw puzzles... which is perhaps why the art of conservation and preservation is so fascinating to me!

(Photo copyright The J. Paul Getty Trust
© J. Paul Getty Trust
For useage information see http://www.getty.edu/legal/copyright.html)

Ancient Mosaics Among the Saguaros

One of the many niceties about going to the Getty Villa for an event is the drive along Pacific Coast Highway with the view of that seemingly endless blue ocean... LA has so many facets to it, and the Pacific Ocean is certainly a good enough reason to live here, even if I don't make the attempt to see it as often as I could... but I digress (my favorite thing to do).

And so, Thursday morning my car was headed back to her favorite parking spot at the Villa, this time to take me to the one-day class, "Ancient Stones in Modern Contexts" taught by Lillian Sizemore. In the morning we discussed ancient and modern mosaics in general, toured the four mosaics on display (which I pretty much know by heart now, although always noticing something new each time I see them), then visited the exhibition "Jim Dine: Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets)", a contemporary installation inspired by scupltures in the collection.

The idea was for us to design our own mosaic based on the ancient mosaics we had viewed that morning. I did a preliminary sketch of grape leaves in a geometric pattern but I had no enthusiasm for it. After a short meditation I saw a vision of saguaros in the southwest with mountains against a sunset. I had no idea where this came from or how it would translate into what was supposed to be a geometric mosaic, especially as we had to use the pieces without cutting them, but there it was, so I proceeded to lay it out on my board.

As the design progressed I realized I had gotten myself into more than I could deal with and part of me had the strong desire to wipe all the mosaic stones off and start over with something more organized, but as we only had a couple of hours to work it was too late. Nevertheless, another part of me was compelled to see the outcome of this mess.

Regardless of my design choice, I have to say I enjoyed the process, of being in the moment, and the realization that no matter the outcome I was creating something that had never existed before. That, to me, is the beauty of the creative process: the opportunity to give birth to an entity entirely new with a life of its own.

Even though, as one of my classmates expressed, the Jim Dine exhibit was not my cup of tea, I "got" what he was doing. This mosaic was my expression of all the influences of that day and of my entire life.

Later, reflecting on what I had done with the mosaic I understood where my inspiration came from. Looking at the mosaics had tapped into my love of archaeology in general and specifically, the project I am working on currently, drawings and photos from an excavation in the southwest US. The images in the mosaic are not just saguaros, but as another classmate commented, look like some of the Indian petroglyphs and pictographs to be found on rocks and cliffsides. So perhaps my subconscious mind was weaving together the designs left by the ancient Romans with those of the Indians. Stones hewn from the mountainsides, rocks and cave walls painted, pebbles and clay taken from the earth. It's all the same. Art is what ties us all together.

[As a side note, one of the many things I learned this day was the technique of dry grouting. Because these mosaic stones are very porous, it's not a good idea to apply wet grout. Instead, you can sprinkle the dry grout over the finished piece, let it fall into the spaces and brush off the excess powder. Then spray the piece with water, carefully clean off any grout that has bubbled up over the stones and let dry. Repeat this process until the grout is as you want it. I am in the process of doing this. Very useful advice for grouting my framed tiles as well, as the wet grout sometimes mars the wood frames. I'm going to try it with my latest tiles.]

(Photos copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Rabbit Hides, Egg Yolks & Mummies

Painting in the Ancient World is the day-long workshop I attended on Sunday at the Getty Villa. We learned Romano-Egyptian painting techniques led by artist Sylvana Barrett. We learned how to mix pigments with boiled rabbit hide (or cow hide) glue or egg yolks to make our own paint and prepared a poplar board (which is what the Mona Lisa was painted on) using authentic materials on which we created a tempera portrait. We started out in the museum gallery looking at the mummy portraits. I've looked at these many times but never noticed the fine (and not-so-fine) cross hatching before. We learned to use this technique to create shadows and highlights and soften the edges between them. I rather like this technique and plan to experiment in acrylics.

I'm not comfortable doing anything for the first time in a classroom situation so although I'm not happy with my finished product, it was a fun day and I'd like to use these pigments and techniques at my own speed. But for better or worse, I'm brave enough to post the portrait on this blog for the whole world to see! And you can see the mummy portrait that inspired this painting here. (So, mine doesn't look so bad now, heh....)

The instructor will be teaching a workshop on manuscript illumination later in the year and I already have the date penciled into my day planner.

(Photo copyright roslyn m wilkins)

The Glass Blowers

Now I have a new place to visit next time I am on the east coast: the Corning Museum of Glass. I am currently taking a class at the Getty Villa on the ancient art in the collection, so I was there this past Wednesday when the Corning team of glass blowers arrived as part of the exhibit, "Reflecting Antiquity: Modern Glass Inspired by Ancient Rome." We watched as they showed us how they replicate ancient glass designs. Of course, I've seen glass-blowing many times before, but this was with a twist (so to speak). I was impressed with the teamwork involved, how many times the glass goes in and out of the kiln and the speed with which everything has to happen before the glass cools... no time for thinking. Apparently it takes six years of training to achieve this level of proficiency. You can watch this event Thursday–Monday, October 25–November 5, 2007, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.















The glass exhibit itself is also fascinating. I've seen it three times. I like it so much I'm tempted to buy the catalog (photography is not allowed in this particular exhibit). But do I really need another art book? And shouldn't I be focusing on tiles and mosaics? A couple of years ago I saw the exhibit at the Getty Center, "The Arts of Fire, Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance." I do own that book. (And now as I am flipping through it again, on page 94 there is a gorgeous ewer in enameled and gilded glass. I've had a bisque teapot sitting in front of me for weeks, waiting for inspiration before I start painting it. This gives me an idea.)

When I was in Boston ten years ago there was a splendid glass exhibit, "Glass Today, by American Studio Artists" at the Museum of Fine Arts. I bought that catalog because I was amazed by the extraordinary designs. It was my first introduction to glass as a pure art form. On that same trip, we visited the Sandwich Glass Museum, in, you guessed it, Sandwich, Massachusetts. Looking at the website, I believe they have expanded since my visit, but at the time I was intrigued by the collection of historical glass of that area.

I've always been fascinated by glass in one way or another. As a child I collected small glass animals, long gone now. One of the beauties of glass is the way it interacts with light (hence, the operative word "reflective" in the title of the exhibit) and photographs on the printed page can never do it justice. So, I recommend seeing the Getty exhibit in person, and in the meantime I'll cogitate on the pros and cons of adding this catalog to my collection.

From the Getty website: Reflecting Antiquity is the first major exhibition to examine the impact of the rediscovery of Roman glass on modern glassmakers. It features Roman vessels as well as modern glassmakers' reproductions of these ancient pieces, and vessels inspired by ancient ones.

(Photographs copyright roslyn m wilkins)

Tim Hawkinson at the Getty Center

Whether you are a Tim Hawkinson fan (I am) or have never heard of him before, it's worth the effort to see his Überorgan installation in the atrium lobby at the Getty Center. This is a wondrously organic conglomeration of balloons, hoses and horns which floats about your head as you walk in the entrance. We were fortunate enough to arrive (on Saturday around 2:00) just as the "music" started (for five minutes on the hour). I put the word music in quotes for a reason which you will discover when you hear it. The piece of art itself and the music puts a smile on everybody's face.

After enjoying the organ, we went in search of the rest of the exhibit. We found it in a small room in the basement. Having seen the immense show of his work at LACMA two years ago, this was a little disappointing, but I realize this was just a sideline to the main event.

We also drifted into "A Place in the Sun: Photographs of Los Angeles" by John Humble. I've seen a lot of photo exhibits of LA and after a while they all look alike, after all, how many times can you photograph the corner liquor store and the LA River. But this was pretty good. With his artist's eye he looked at some pretty awful landscapes and made them spectacular. Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Another great day at the Getty. The only downer was the parking. Just making a left turn off Sepulveda was a major achievement, only to face the traffic jam snailing its way to the kiosk. With all the engineering and design resources available to the Getty, how did they end up with this mess? We expected to see a mob of people at the museum but it was not that bad once inside. Next time, we just have to arrive earlier.

I believe now I am Getty'd out for a while, I don't need to visit either the Villa or the Center for the next few months.

Stories in Stone at the Getty Villa: Visits 2 and 3

I attended the gallery course at the Getty Villa on March 21 in conjunction with the Stories in Stone exhibit which I had previously seen. In the morning there were three speakers on different topics including a general history of mosaics (while interesting, I could easily have delivered this talk myself), current mosaics (with Lillian Sizemore, a working mosaic artist herself), and some insight into the conservation of mosaics in Tunisia and how the exhibit was brought to Los Angeles. A real treat was a visit to the conservation lab where the head of the department was preparing a new backing for a large mosaic using techniques and materials used in the aerospace industry. Similarly, in the exhibit there is a display of dental tools which are used in conserving the mosaics on site... next time my dentist is invading my mouth I'll just try to think of myself as a mosaic... As it was, I did have a dental appointment that afternoon so after listening to a docent's talk on the exhibit, I ended the day stuck in traffic on Wilshire Blvd. in a desperate attempt to get to Beverly Hills on time. That certainly spoiled the tranquility of another day at the Getty Villa.

But I was back that Sunday with another friend in tow. Everybody's favorite mosaic in the exhibit seems to be Oceanus (third century). It is an amazing mosaic, more so everytime I have seen it in person. More amazing is seeing the photograph of it in context with the mosaic work that surrounded it. As I have mentioned elsewhere, until recently archaeologists thought the right thing to do was to remove the figurative portions of the mosaic for safekeeping in museums, leaving the surrounding, usually more geometric designs, to rot. So in the museum, not only do you not see the mosaics intact but totally out of any kind of architectural context. Fortunately, the light bulb went on some years ago and now the policy is to leave mosaics in situ as much as possible, sometimes even covering them with the local soil to bury them for posterity after documentation.

This exhibit closes April 30 and the mosaics return to their homeland. I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see them three times.

Los Angeles Conservancy March Mosaic Tour

The LA Conservancy is partnering with the J. Paul Getty Museum to celebrate mosaic in Los Angeles in conjunction with "Stories in Stone: Conserving Mosaics of Roman Africa." (See previous blog.) Among other activities, LAC is sponsoring a self-driving tour on Sunday, March 25. the tour will include Watts Towers, St. John's Episcopal Church and the Birth of Liberty at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. For more information go to the Los Angeles Conservancy website.

Another event, which was sold out to the general public when I attempted to sign up initially, is the Wednesday, March 21 Gallery Course at the Getty Villa. As a Conservancy member I was able to sign up for that today. Oh joy!!

I was a docent for the LAC for 15 years and enjoyed every moment of it. Unfortunately, when I decided to go back to school and devote more time to my artwork, along with still working fulltime and other obligations, some things had to go, and this was one of them. I'm hoping some time in the near future I can once again put on my tour-giving hat for the Conservancy...

Getty Villa in the Rain

Yesterday was the end of a nine-year wait for me to see one of my favorite places in the world, the Getty Villa in Malibu. When the Getty Center (see previous blog) opened that year, the Villa closed for renovations and expansion. I believe it was only supposed to be closed for about five years but the time was extended, due in part to litigation from the neighbors. But that is all history now and it was with much excitement, and some trepidation, that I drove up the irregularly (and bumpy) paved driveway with my friends BG and TL. My main interest was in viewing the exhibit "Stories in Stone: Conserving Mosaics from the National Museums of Tunisia." We started out with the "Getty Villa Architecture and Gardens Tour" just to get our bearings. This was definitely a worthwhile introduction. I was impressed with the way they handled the juxtaposition and integration of the old 1970s buildings with the new. TL mentioned the use of travertine that looked like it had been left over from the construction of the Getty Center, a nice touch. We decided to have lunch in the new cafe. I opted for the Villa Salad with chicken, nicely presented with crisp lettuce, a lemon dressing and pistachios, I would order it again. Leaving the cafe it looked like rain was imminent.

We headed for the Mosaics. I have been reading snippets of the books "Tunisian Mosaics, Treasures from Roman Africa" and "Stories in Stone, Conserving Mosaics of Roman Africa." But, of course, there is nothing like seeing artwork in person. Looking at floor mosaics shown on walls perpendicular to their intended position, has always been a problem for me. But given the exhibit space, laying that many mosaics out on the floor would take up too much room. So I have to get my head around what the intended view would have been versus the way I have to look at them in this context. The other troubling point is, of course, that there is no context! These mosaics were parts of buildings just as much as the walls and ceilings. It's like looking at a fireplace left standing when the rest of the house has burned down around it... you have no idea how it related to its surroundings. Nevertheless, there is some value in seeing the mosaics firsthand as if they are separate works of art, like an oil painting. Because I am not likely to be going to Tunisia any time soon, traveling around to all the museums and sites where these are usually housed, this was indeed a treat. I realized I really had learned a lot since starting the Archaeology Program at UCLA a couple of years ago, studying for classes, writing term papers and reading on my own. Being with the mosaics, I felt very much at home and I had an intense feeling that this is the way my life is headed.

Our next stop was "Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity." Not only is the glasswork beautiful and interesting, but the video kiosks sprinkled throughout the exhibit with demonstrations of the making of the various kinds of glasswork enhanced the experience. By the time we wandered out into the open area, the rain had arrived. One of the nice touches at the Getty Villa (and Getty Center) is the provision of umbrella stations where you can pick up a brolly or drop it off going in and out of the buildings.

Of course, I had to stop off at the Museum Store to see if they had any interesting silk scarves, and wouldn't you know it, they had some with a mosaic design. Guess what I am wearing to work tomorrow!

(All photos on this blog copyright roslyn m wilkins and not to be used without permission.)