The Artist Sees Differently: Kate Boone

Kate Boone, Museum Assistant

Kate Boone on post. Photo: Claire Norman

How did you learn about the Phillips?

My mom is really into art and a complete art buff. I grew up in D.C. and would go to the museum when I was young.

Do you feel you are inspired by the Phillips artwork ?

There’s something really special about being able to sit with the art all day. Just simply being in such a creative environment day after day really keeps my brain occupied. It’s funny because my work couldn’t be any more different than the art in the Phillips but I feel like it’s impossible not to feel inspired. There is so much variety which keeps it new and exciting, but at the end of the day I feel blessed to be sitting among works by some of the artists that truly started it all.

What do you listen to as you prepare your photographs?

I usually end up listening to something like Henry Mancini or the soundtrack to Woody Allen’s Manhattan or completely space out to some bizarre electronic music . . . or [the D.C. punk band] Bad Brains. Continue reading

Slow Art Day: Sharing Impressions

Arthur G. Dove. Red Sun, 1935. Oil on canvas; 20 1/4 x 28 in. The Phillips Collection

Last weekend, a group celebrated Slow Art Day at The Phillips Collection. It was a new experience for all of us, and it led to fun questions and insights, sometimes about pieces many of us had breezed by before.

Here’s how it worked: Alex Pergament and I were the hosts, so we chose nine artworks and marked them on a map. Participants visited each piece in small groups or on our own, in whatever order we felt like. The only rule was that we were to spend five to ten minutes with each piece.

I thought that would feel too long, but once I settled in and started looking at a piece and talking it over, the time flew by. We spent ten minutes with The Road Menders by Van Gogh before we knew it. And we had to hurry away from As Time Goes By by Hodgkin to be on time for lunch. Continue reading