The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 30

Normal, III. May 25, 1975 Protect art from damage with proper care fix Damaged I By Barbara Bouton If a person puts money and effort into buying a work of art for his home, he shouldn't just throw it up on a hook on the wall and let it hang there. Yet that is what many people unfortunately do. say several Bloomington-Normal residents who are artists or experienced in display of art. Tom Toperzer, director of university galleries at Illinois State University, said "a lot of common sense is involved" in taking care of art.

The first thing to consider, he said, is what materials the art is made of. For example, an oil painting is simply a piece of cotton canvas with oil paint on it. A print is only a piece of paper. Barry Weer, Toperzer's assistant and graduate student at ISU, said these items will decay just like anything else and conservation steps should be taken to delay this decomposition. The biggest thing to remember, they said, is not to do anything to the art that would make a person uncomfortable.

Check temperature and humidity. They said art subjected to high humidity will rot or wrinkle from moisture, while art subjected to low humidity will become brittle and may crack, in the case of oil paintings. Careful display A humidifier may be a good investment for a house. Also avoid hanging art above a heating vent or radiator, said Mrs. Betty Kilgore, member of the Bloomington-Normal Art Association.

Displaying art in direct sunlight is a big mistake, they agreed. Colors will fade quickly under hot sun. And Bloomington hi-, Naomi Towner Mrs. Betty Kilgore Pantagraph Photos Toperzer said any art stored under glass and displayed in the sun may have moisture condense under it and cause the paper to rot or mold. Another problem caused by sunlight was mentioned by Ms.

Naomi Towner, who teaches in the ISU art department. She said any weavings or wall hangings displayed in sunlight may be damaged and may even fall apart. Mrs. Towner recommended not hanging art near fluorescent lights. They act like sunlight and will fade art.

she said. Framing a work of art should be done correctly in order to preserve the picture. Toperzer said, "The idea in conservation is you never do anything you cannot reverse. Try to keep that work of art as close to its original, natural state as possible." Breathe Art should be able to breathe, even when framed. It should be able to adjust to changes in temperature and humidity.

Toperzer and Weer said the best way to attach a print or photograph to a backing board for framing is with two small pieces of tape on top of the picture. Leave the rest of the picture unattached. The types of paper and tape used for framing are important. Most types are full of acid which, when brought in contact with artwork, will discolor and damage the work. Weer said once this chemical reaction begins, it is nearly impossible to stop.

Toperzer said the best kind of mat-board to use is 100 per cent rag paper, acid-free. He said it may be a little more expensive than regular matboard but it will be worth the cost in the long run. Weer said any common tapes available are bad for artwork. He said the only kind of tape which the ISU staff has found suitable is acid-free, hypoallergenic surgical tape. He said a professional conservator would use only rice paper and a special paste made of a rice substance to make his own tape.

Cleaning Mrs. Kilgore recommended avoiding non-glare glass when framing prints. She said the glass seems to dull the color of the framed piece and also tends to blur the image. Keeping artwork clean is simply a matter of ignoring the work, except in extreme circumstances. "Anything for Pantagraph C-8 Jjj 4 I Py She repairs sentimental favorites eign added to it (a work of art) will eventually affect it," said Toperzer.

Mrs. Kilgore said she has cleaned oil paintings with warm water and Ivory soap, taking care not to get the paintings wet. She said this procedure is to be done rarely, if at all. It is necessary only when there is an obvious film of dirt on the picture. Ms.

Towner said wall hangings or weavings can be vacuumed off but she said to do this rarely. She cautioned against washing because dyes might fade or fibers might be affected. Dry cleaning should be done by a professional who deals with artwork. Weer said the standard daily cleaning for all museums is a quick brush job with a feather duster. This removes dust and doesn't subject the object's surface to a hard rubbing.

No bread Toperzer said the time-honored method of rubbing an oil painting with a piece of fresh, soft, white bread really does work. However, he recommended against it because any minute cracks may gather a few bread crumbs, which could decay and damage the painting. One tip the artists shared about display is that most people hang their paintings too high for confortable viewing. Mrs. Kilgore said a good rule of thumb is to hang a painting so the middle is about eye level.

This rule follows, too, if art is to be hung above furniture, such as a sofa. Weer said, "Art looks awkward if it's tremendously above the sofa." Ms. Towner said when hanging a weaving or wall hanging, be careful not to break the threads. She suggested that a piece of linen or jute webbing can be whipstitched onto the back of the weaving about '2 inch from the top. This can then be used as a casing for a rod or as a holder for curtain rings.

Professionals While there are professional conservators located in large cities who do major repair work on artwork, it is much better to take precautionary measures so artwork will never need restoration. Ms. Towner said owners have to have "a sense of responsibility" to the art they own and to the artist who created it. Some conservators are connected with large metropolitan museums and others work free-lance. Toperzer and Weer suggested that anyone looking for a professional conservator contact a museum, the Art Institute in Chicago in particular, for advice and referral.

They also suggested that people interested in conserving art read books on the subject. Toperzer said if there is enough interest in the area in art conservation, ISU might consider arranging a seminar on the subject with a professional conservator as speaker. Parsley, thyme, bay leaf in bouquet garni When a recipe calls for a "bouquet garni," you can use parsley, thyme and bay leaf. Remove the bouquet from the cooked dish before serving. to make 1 i I 5 .4 1 Barry Weer, left, and Tom Toperzer examine a portrait of Jesse Fell which has been damaged throughout the years.

The canvas is ripped in several places and there are chips in the paint. Weer said the painting, which had been given She said she is learning about antiques and collectibles in the process of repairing them. Her business began when her mother asked her to repair a small pitcher. A friend saw the work and asked her to Miss Barbara Coolidge examines an old plaster beer stein on which she Is rebuilding the bottom. The white area at the bottom of the stein has been rebuilt with plaster.

Miss Coolidge will paint the area after it has been repaired. iiijii i glassware. She works mainly on porcelain, ceramic and china pieces. She is unable to fire repaired pieces because she doesn't have room for a kiln and because it is too risky to guess the temperature at which the piece was originally fired. If the temperature is wrong, she said, the object will break.

The work she does for antique dealers is listed as "professionally mended," she said. The value of an antique is affected when it is mended but antique collectors who like the object will still buy it even though it has been repaired. Miss Coolidge said her mother, who illustrated children's books, was her inspiration in art. Miss Coolidge was art editor of the school yearbook at Bloomington High School. She did not do much else with art until she moved to Ohio and met a woman who painted small porcelains for a store there.

Some friends asked her to draw posters for a project and one thing just led to another. Miss Coolidge said she is too busy to spend much time on her first love, oil painting. But she said her work "certainly has been fun" and said she enjoyed the variety of pieces she repairs. "You just don't know what's going to come in the door next." B.B. Miss Barbara Coolidge says her business started out of people's sentiment for objects they own.

Miss Coolidge, of Bloomington, repairs broken or cracked objects, such as bowls and plates, figurines and vases. Repaired I vT. O. 'I JCPenney up as lost several years ago, was found in a Fell Hall storage room by a student and turned over to the ISU gallery staff. It was painted in 1888 by an artist identified only as Gilstrape.

(Pantagraph Photos) repair something else. She now works mostly for antique collectors and dealers. "People are awfully sentimental," she said. Sometimes she may get a little impatient with people who ask difficult things, but she said she is just as sentimental about her art objects. Sometimes the work becomes like a puzzle to her and gets more intriguing as it goes along.

She repairs objects with the same material of which they are made, such as plaster on plaster. She can simply glue things back together or she can even rebuild missing parts. One of her more time-consuming repairs, she said, is to rebuild completely the foot on a statuette which is only about six inches tall. Sense of art Miss Coolidge said chips on china are about the hardest thing to mend. Just when she thinks they're smooth enough to paint, she feels them and finds they're still rough.

Her "sense of art" guides her on proper design and proportions on her repairs. In replacing handles on a porcelain bowl, for example, she said, "You study it and then you have to get away from it." Every so often she will notice something she needs to change and she'll start working again. When building up an addition to a figurine. Miss Coolidge said, the piece has to dry thoroughly before it is sanded or added to again. "Sanding gets to be painful," she said.

Sanding has to be done cautiously because the sandpaper can pit the surface or take the design off some other part of the piece. After the cracks and breaks are repaired, she paints over them. Matching color comes naturally to her, she said. She uses oil and enamel paints. If a crack is particularly visible, she will take a motif from the design and paint over the crack to camouflage it.

Hard to hide "I usually shy away from glass," she said, explaining that it is difficult, if not impossible, to hide a repair on Ph. 452-1449 JCPenney Pixy portraits are enough anyone smile. Mmmrnmmmiwiiiii 'mm Vniiniiiiiinllii mJ Gift selection for the graduate is easy at Eaton Jewelry. Our professional staff is ready to assist you in choosing that special gift that shows your pride in his achievement. "IT Am 111 AA I lit 1 1 I I Photographer's Hours: May 28 to May 30 10 a.m.

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