Staff Show 2018: Emma Sweeney

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Experiment Station

In this series, Manager of Visitor and Family Engagement Emily Bray highlights participants in This Is My Day Job: The 2018 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show, on view through September 30, 2018.

Crouch by Emma Sweeney

What do you do at The Phillips Collection? Are there any unique or interesting parts about your job that most people might not know about?

Museum Assistant. My favorite part of the job is getting one-on-one time with the artworks.

Emma Sweeney

Who is your favorite artist in the collection?

Alexander Calder, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Joan Mitchell, Francisco de Goya

What is your favorite space within The Phillips Collection?

I love the Laib Wax Room and the former main gallery. It’s very secluded and peaceful there.

What would you like people to know about your artwork on view in the 2018 Staff Show (or your work in general)?

My piece for the staff show is a woodblock print which I made using two separately carved blocks. One block was carved using the jigsaw method, in which the block is cut up into different pieces that can then be inked separately and put back together like a jigsaw puzzle, allowing me to print multiple colors from one block. Apparently this was one of Edvard Munch’s favorite methods of printmaking (Munch is one of my personal printmaking heroes). The second block I carved serves as the “key” block, the central part of the final image (in this case the lines of the figure), which I printed on top of the jigsaw block. What I love best about this process is that it is a combination of printing and painting: I paint the inks onto the jigsaw block, which means I can be totally spontaneous with the color and gesture. Even though I am re-creating the same image each time, each print comes out looking radically different (no two are exactly alike). In terms of the image itself, I’ve always been drawn to the female form (for reasons I don’t quite understand), and I particularly like creating visceral, expressive poses.

This Is My Day Job: The James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show is on view through September 30, 2018.

Staff Show 2018: Michael McSorley

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Experiment Station

In this series, Manager of Visitor and Family Engagement Emily Bray highlights participants in This Is My Day Job: The 2018 James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show, on view through September 30, 2018.

Drivers by Michael McSorley

Tell us about yourself.

At the age of eight, I was allowed to take some photos with an old camera. My photos of bicycle wheels, sewage pumps, and other inane objects vexed my parents (film and developing was expensive), but predicted some of the art I now produce.

What do you do at The Phillips Collection? Are there any unique or interesting parts about your job that most people might not know about?

I’m a museum assistant. I help visitors with information and also protect the art. Before or after visitors arrive, I get to study the art, mostly looking at the value and color themes. I have found that the majority of paintings in the galleries use a complementary color scheme or a variation on that.

Mike McSorley

Who is your favorite artist in the collection?

Pierre Bonnard’s Children and Cat. I love the cool violet-blue light on the kids’ foreheads and the analogous color scheme.

What is your favorite space within The Phillips Collection?

The Goh Annex and Sant Building, second floor.

What would you like people to know about your artwork on view in the 2018 Staff Show (or your work in general)?

My process varies piece to piece, but on this painting the image was composed and drawn using graphite. Paint was applied, pulling the graphite into the paint and using it to darken and tone down the edges. This layer was thin and the ground of the board reflects back through. This increases color variety which was also enhanced by brushing, scraping, rubbing, using contrasts of color and other concepts. Sometimes the original lines are still visible in the finished painting, and at other times I redraw the edges with pencil to add strength. Initially I had drawn the tools lying down, but when that wasn’t working, I wiped out the drawing using turpentine. That left a dark stain, so I flipped the painting over, covered the stain with a velatura of white, and let the history of it show. I thought this added an interesting element.

This Is My Day Job: The James McLaughlin Memorial Staff Show is on view through September 30, 2018. Join us for a reception in the exhibition on September 20, 5-7 pm.

Angela Bulloch: Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Cyan Three (PART II)

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Experiment Station

On September 16, the Phillips unveiled a new sculpture by Angela Bulloch on the corner of 21st and Q Streets. We asked Angela a few questions about her artwork. Read Part I of the interview here.

Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Cyan Three, 2018, Powder coated steel, Made possible with support from Susan and Dixon Butler, Nancy and Charles Clarvit, John and Gina Despres, A. Fenner Milton, Eric Richter, Harvey M. Ross, George Vradenburg and The Vradenburg Foundation

How do you think Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Three Cyan fits with the Phillips? How did you choose these colors/this size for this commission?

The colors were chosen to contrast with the surrounding area. The color—cyan blue—is not only the opposite color of the orange bricks but it’s also an important color used often around Washington, DC. I’ve placed the lighter color on the underside of the sculpture for the first time with the plan that it would be illuminated from the ground up at night because I thought that would be a good artificial inversion. The sun will illuminate the sculpture from above during the day in the usual way.

How does your modern/minimalist sculpture change when placed in front of a brick house built in 1897? How does it interact with the surrounding area of Dupont Circle?

This work is neither a modern nor a minimal sculpture. The techniques used in its fabrication date the sculpture—it could not have been made like this before the 1990s, really. Aesthetically I think it fits in well with the surroundings—Dupont Circle or in front of a building made about 100 years prior to the technology used for its making. The contrast between the sculpture and the building behind it is deliberately sharp.

Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Cyan Three at night

What do you want people to think/feel when they see your artwork?

I don’t like to prescribe people’s feelings, but when I look at the sculpture I think it looks alien, bold yet comfortably present, holding the corner as it does, and I cannot resist the temptation to ascribe human qualities to it despite the fact that it is anything but human. Although I think wishing to humanize blind objects reveals something more about me rather than the sculpture.

Much of your work incorporates time-based elements, such as shifting light patterns, sound, and interactive mechanisms. On the contrary, Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Cyan Three is a static object. How do you envision audiences interacting with your sculpture at the Phillips?

Oh that’s not a question that I can answer. I have many thoughts but no statement . . . let’s ask the audience.