THE ARTIST AS ARCHIVIST

James Gurney shares his tips for preserving and interpreting your artwork

- 

STATION POINTS - TIPS AND INSIGHTS

None of us knows the future fate of our paintings and sketchbooks. They may end up as valued family relics, they may find their way to a museum collection or they might be sold in a yard sale.

Whatever happens, people in the future will thank you for taking a few key steps to prepare and preserve your work for posterity. I realize that most of us are so preoccupied by the challenge of creating new artwork that it's easy to overlook the fact that each of us is the first and most important archivist for our own artistic legacy.

HOW TO BE A BETTER CONSERVATOR

To learn from an expert, I met with Venus Van Ness, the archivist of the Norman Rockwell Museum. We put on cotton gloves, and she showed me the acid-free folders in which each of Norman Rockwell's tearsheets, letters and drawings are carefully preserved. The air was perfectly climate controlled to an ideal humidity and temperature.

"My studio doesn't look like this," I admitted to her, a little sheepishly. This was a meeting of two different worlds. One was the world of the artist, a fear zone of gummy tape, dog-eared pages, blazing sun, coffee spills, marauding pets and slumping portfolios. The other was the world of the archivist, a temperate realm of safety, where a piece of paper has a chance at immortality.

Can these two worlds meet halfway?

I wondered. Most artists will never take such care with their own work, but maybe there are some basic, reasonable things we can do to save a lot of grief for future conservators (assuming hopefully that our work might end up in such a place).

TAKING CARE OF YOUR ART

• GET ART AND BOOKS OUT OF THE BASEMENT AND ATTIC

Basements are dark and damp, often leading to mildew. Dehumidifiers can help. Attics can get very hot and very cold, which accelerates decay.