Welcome …. to this weeks , What’s on the Easel , where we talk about everything, art , that’s happening at the , Lisa Lovely LPA Art Museum, I am your host , Art , and with me today , Lisa Lovely LPA and we are talking about her role as curator, of the , Lisa Lovely LPA Art Museum, but as always I will first ask .. What’s on the easel ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Hello, Art , what’s on the easel , is the summer session , it’s finally arrived and we have on the easel currently, a 24x24 inch wood panel and a lot of painting ahead of us this summer.
Art : A new painting ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : yes, lol something inspired by my latest trip to ,Reno.
Art : That’s great. Now, let me get this straight, you have several titles at the museum , artist , witch , curator and whatever lol .. what’s the , whatever title all about ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Thats means whatever does not get done by the first three titles I get to do that too lol , I basically do everything !
Art : lol , So, what exactly is a curator ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : I like to sum it up this way .. a curator is the keeper of the art or some other collection of items. In our museum , I curate art. I keep the art !
Art : A keeper ? Like someone that keeps animals at the zoo ? lol
Lisa Lovely LPA : lol kinda , Art, when art is created, it is always changing , when the work is complete and the artist signs it , it doesn’t end there , the art goes on living , it needs a place to live , it gets damaged and it may need to be repaired , it ages and it needs to be taken care of and during its life it needs to be made available to the world, so, it can be understood and maybe even through its existence, enrich the world some how.
Art : All that is done by the curator ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Yes. It’s a big job and responsibility.
Art : What’s the hardest part of being the curator at the , Lisa Lovely LPA Art Museum ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : well , a big challenge as a curator , is there is just not enough of anything , not enough space, money , time. This is not just an issue for us , many small museums are facing such challenge’s and many small museums are closing. It’s very disturbing when you hear a beautiful small museum must close its doors. But it happens.
Art : Space is an issue ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Very much so , often people get the idea that the museum is a very big place , round numbers , it’s only 20x20 feet and our painting collection is closing in on two hundred paintings , plus we have our own wood shop , an area to make clay , wood block printing, and now room must be made to house our growing collection of clay art ,and we have a substantial library , various tools , art supplies and so on.
Also, the museum adjoins a residential dwelling , so in part , we have to contend with all the junk you might run into in a typical garage !
The big issue is we are always making new art , so , our collection, is always expanding but our museum stays the same size lol
Art : Now, you are the curator and artist , does that cause issues ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : It can , you know, the artist does not want to hear that space is limited , if a painting , needs to be very large , then large it will be , but the curator says, where the hell are we going to put that painting when its done !
It’s not a trivial issue , if there is , no safe place to store a large art work , it will get damaged maybe destroyed , long before it’s time.
The artist does not want to hear this , and it drives the curator insane. But if a painting is special and must be large and it’s not painted because of space limitations ? What then ? What could be lost ? This kills the artist.
Art : … and you are both the artist and curator .. and so ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : … and so , I drive myself crazy ! lol but together , the curator and artist manage somehow lol.
Art : The gallery is … officially , a museum ? What is a museum ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Yes, after the big renovation , we have qualified to be called a museum. A museum cares for things that are of value to the larger culture of humanity. In our museum we curate art.
Art : How is the art of this museum any value to others outside the museum ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : The art collection contains pieces of my psychic existence, the pieces help me understand, what’s ticking inside , how my psyche works and that I think is important to living a better life.
Maybe , others , by experiencing the museum , will find a key to their own psychic existence. Maybe , it will help them somehow, to start their own journey.
Art : Psychic existence , sounds kinda witchy ? lol What does it mean ? lol
Lisa Lovely LPA : Nooo lol it’s not witchy lol it just means we are more then who we think we are , and when we find the proper key, we can unlock the part of us , that’s unknown to ourselves , and when we do that we become better beings.
Art : Better ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : Just more aware of who we are. When we know more about who we are , we make better choices. We live more happy and we can help others be happy.
Thats all really.
And it’s the curators job to take all the art that’s in storage , collecting dust , and all the scattered information about such art , and somehow , make it presentable to those that may visit the museum. Such that , the visitor , has the best chance of clicking with the art.
Art : So, what’s a very big goal for you as curator at the museum , what would be the ultimate goal ?
Lisa Lovely LPA : what we all work for at the museum , artist , curators , witches , whatever , is to be ready to move into the new museum , someday, and the museum, itself will be a work of art.
But again we face time and money issues and the curator helps in that as well by preparing budgets for funding and so on. Money is always an issue but time is a bigger one , it’s always running out , those of us at the museum , won’t be here forever , that’s where the witch comes in. If we don’t finish it in this life we may have to come back again, that could take centuries !
Art : Uhhhhh and with that , I must say we are out of time ! Thanks , Lisa and thanks everyone for joining us today … see you next week, when we ask , What’s on the Easel ?
What’s on the Easel : First, painting of the 2024, summer session. 24x24 inch wood panel , still in the gesso stage.
