So, I got back to Waco yesterday. It's always lovely to be back. I mean, I enjoy being home and catching up with family and everyone from high school, but Brooks is just as much of a home to me as Aledo, and there's always something so wonderfully refreshing to walk through that archway. It makes me kind of sad for people who live at a traditional dorm or in an apartment -- how do they survive without a residential college of which to be a part?
Today I woke up (early!) and went to the museum to begin condition reporting for the exhibit that the Mayborn Museum is doing with the Honors College. There are 165 piece of original art by Chagall (his Bible series) and Rouault (the Miserere series) that need to be individually taken out of the crates, unwrapped, condition reported, rewrapped, and placed back in the crates. After working for about seven hours today (standing in a room peering closely over a rather low table), I managed to get through 13. This is going to be a much longer process than I had originally thought, lol. Luckily the exhibit doesn't open until September, so we have time. It's rather monotonous work to stand there and record every scratch on every frame for seven hours days without end... I think it's made me realize that I would definitely rather be a curator or work in exhibit and only have to deal with this type of work occasionally than work in collections and do this all the time. Still, I feel super lucky to be getting to do this. I mean, how lucky am I to be getting to handle and examine such wonderful pieces of art.
I am in the process of applying for summer internships. Currently, I am looking at 20 different museums, including several different branches of the Smithsonian, the Met, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Kimbell. I go both ways about this. On the one hand, I think it's totally right that I should be applying for these, and I can't understand why so many of the others in the program are so hesitant, even resistant to apply to such big-name museums. On the other hand, I am rather afraid that I will not get a single one of them, and end up working at the Dr Pepper Museum all summer. I mean, I guess that wouldn't be awful. The people there are so nice, and I already know my way around their facilities, by virtue of the exhibit we designed last semester. I guess it makes me kind of a snob, but I want to work somewhere better than that. To have a better, more impressive name on my resume. And also, partially to have the experience of spending my summer working somewhere other than Waco. I want to work in big museums, and that necessitates living in big cities, but I also like cities. I am not particularly fond of driving, and although current necessity has forced me to become fairly familiar with the task, I would just a soon never drive a car again and rely on a well-designed public transportation system to get everywhere I would ever need to go. Christian told me about an internship today with the curatorial department at the Supreme Court. I think I might look into that, as it definitely sounds interesting. Also, he mentioned that not a lot of people know about it, which can't hurt my chances, lol.
Also got an email today with all of the information concerning my Independent Readings courses. I am seriously freaking out. In 113 days, I must turn in a complete Thesis Proposal to the Honors Office. Agh! Why does that seems like so freaking soon? Oh, because it is. And I am still just as unsure as I was before the break. Everything I think about doing I then talk myself out of, or I don't know enough about yet to formulate more than a very broad topic in my mind. What I need is the actual thesis -- as in, not just a broad subject, but a specific argument I want to take up/make. Also, a thesis director and 110 pages of brilliant writing, but really who's counting, lol. The syllabus they sent us also said that many professors ask for a working first chapter by the end of this term! Maybe it was a mistake to take both of my readings this semester... No. I will be able to do it. I always pull things off somehow, and I will with this. I just need to use my time wisely and stay focused. Or, at least not slack anymore than usual, lol.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I think this was a very decent update considering how long it's been since the last one. :-)
P.S. The above is one of the pieces that I condition reported today. Not my absolute favorite (I really loved the one with Noah and the rainbow), but one of them. This is Chagall's etching for the Creation, with God breathing life into man. I especially like how he did not try to draw the One who has no form. Rather, God is the circle in the top labeled Yahweh. Enjoy!
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