Presentation at the IFA/NYU-Frick Collection, History of Art Symposium

I am thrilled to announce that my presentation was selected to represent Boston University's History of Art and Architecture department at the IFA/NYU-Frick symposium for Art History graduate students, jointly sponsored by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University and the Frick Collection. I will present a version of my paper on artists' viewsheds that I wrote for Professor Keith Morgan's seminar. The paper is titled "Institutionalizing the Artist's View: The Viewsheds of Frederic Edwin Church and Winslow Homer." If you'd like to know more about viewsheds, here is a very short intro.

The symposium will be held April 15-16, 2011. They just posted this year's schedule; you can browse the program here.

ABOVE: a photograph from my visit to Olana

Back to blogging, hopefully, and "This is your brain on grad school, Number II"

I've been a bad blogger. Such is life as a PhD student. I thought I'd do an update of my "brain on post-its" post/pic from the end of last year as a placeholder. The above pile represents my post-its from circa 40+ books and countless articles from last semester.

Before things get too crazy in my last semester of coursework, I hope to provide a few short updates on life and the following projects: the SPE-NE conference at RISD, the show Traces that I curated at PAAM, the essay I wrote for Sandi Haber Fifield's forthcoming book, Between Planting and Picking (Charta, 2011), and anything else that comes to mind.

Until then, enjoy the pretty colors!

This is your brain after one year as a PhD student

This is my brain. This is my brain after finishing my first year as a PhD student. Actually, these are about 1/2 of the post-its I removed from my ~70 books before returning them to the library (and from the 10+ books I bought, both numbers are from the spring semester alone). Despite the exhaustion, I'm in a good spot: the program and professors are fantastic and my colleagues inspirational. I have learned so much. Bruce also celebrated a milestone: he finished his first year as a fulltime professor and recently graduated his first class.

One year of coursework down, one more to go...and then all that other stuff (orals, prospectus, dissertation). It's rather strange as I haven't not worked fulltime in about 11 years. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do: prep for teaching the history of photography in BU's second summer session (here's hoping that two more sign up!), curate an exhibition of Dan Ranalli's work for the fall/winter at the Provincetown Art Museum, go to a conference in London (here's hoping the flights come down!), and get married in the Catskills. Nevertheless, I am still recovering from the year and also not quite sure what to do with myself as I re-enter the land of the living. (A start: yesterday, I bought flowers and planted my window boxes.)

Getting my PhD is something I've always wanted to do and I always intended to go back, but I now feel something like a high schooler without steady summer employment. Some of the more interesting summer jobs I have had in the way past include amusement park ride operator and ice cream truck driver. What are some of the more noteworthy or quirky ones you've had? Any suggestions, tips, or tricks for re-entry inbetween/after school?

Paper at the BU Art History Graduate Student Symposium, "Place"

I was delighted to be selected to present at the BU Art History graduate student symposium on March 20th. The presentations and keynote look wonderful and place is a favorite topic of mine. I can't wait to hear them all! The full schedule of events is below and more information is here.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Friday, March 19, 2010, 5:30pm
Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery
855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215

Anne Whiston Spirn, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Language of Landscape
(www.annewhistonspirn.com)

GRADUATE SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 10:00am-3:00pm
Riley Seminar Room, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115

10:00 am COFFEE, Riley Seminar Room

10:30 am MORNING SESSION
Moderator: Lana Sloutsky, Boston University

10:40-11:40 am - PRESENTATION OF PAPERS

Elisa Foster, Brown University
Remembered Places and Lost Spaces: Retrieving the Medieval Sites of Le Puy-en-Velay

Jessica Roscio, Boston University
The New Woman at Home: Alice Austen, Gendered Identities, and Domestic Spaces

Sally H. King, Columbia University/The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Establishing the Modern Gateway: the Ornament and Architecture of Grand Central Terminal, 1913

11:40 am QUESTION & ANSWER

12:00 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm COFFEE, Riley Seminar Room

1:30 pm AFTERNOON SESSION
Moderator: Austin Porter, Boston University

1:40-2:40 pm - PRESENTATION OF PAPERS

Elizabeth Bennett Hupp, University of California, Berkeley
On China Cabinets in a Mennonite Living Room

Erica North Morawski, University of Illinois at Chicago
Savior of Stop-Gap Housing: The Role of the Quonset Hut in Post-World War II University Housing

Leslie K. Brown, Boston University
Nostalgia with a View: Meditations on the Tower Optical Coin-Operated Binocular Viewer

2:40 pm QUESTION & ANSWER

For more information please contact Carrie Anderson, Symposium Coordinator, Art History Department, Boston University at moorec@bu.edu, or visit www.bu.edu/ah/news/2009-2010/symposium.html. This event is sponsored by The Humanities Foundation at Boston University; the Art History Department, Boston University; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery.

Above Image: Henry Pelham, A Plan of Boston in New England with its Environs (detail), 1777. Map Reproduction Courtesy of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

Help needed: Photogs who document places that look like other places

I am writing as I would love to have help/input. This is hopefully what the blog-o-sphere and the internets are for, right? Right!

As many know, I am in my second semester as a full-time student. Currently, I am taking a seminar on Globalization and Contemporary Art (in addition to Institutional Architecture). I am hoping to write my seminar paper in part on photographers who document places that look like other places and all of the issues surrounding the locations and this practice. This includes of course Andrea Robbins and Max Becher's project on the "Transportation of Place" and also series like Seung Woo Back's "Real World," a global place theme park in South Korea, and Reiner Riedler's "Fake Holidays." Many focus on sites of tourism in which a locale has either capitalized on a previous connection (either strong or tenuous) or created one out of the blue.

I know that that there have to be more people doing work on and about this, and perhaps it's just my tired graduate student memory that needs help jogging...can you help point me to more? I have included links above to spur your thinking and names that others have suggested so far below. If you also know of sites (such as Miniaturk in Turkey) that bring sites and monuments from disparate places together in one place, that would be welcome too.

Comment if you wish below. Many many thanks, and if used, there will be a grateful citation and endnote awarded in your honor!

OTHER NAMES SUGGESTED BY AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL FOLKS:
Beth Dow, Thomas Demand, Christopher Sims, E. Robinson Brady, An-My Lê, and variations of "Never been to"...and more.

ABOVE: Reiner Riedler, from the series "Fake Holidays"

My new commute and first week as a PhD student

Not that I am actually walking from the PRC to the BU Art History department, but above represents my "move" if you will and a big life transition from working fulltime to going to graduate school fulltime: 0.3 miles. I am currently parking in Cambridge to save money and walking over the BU bridge with laptop and books. Luckily, I have a little office cubicle, which is proving quickly to be a life (and back) saver and I don't have to find a new grocery store. I always wanted to go back for my PhD, it just took me a while. I am loving it.

Updates will be fewer and farther between as the reading and prep work takes over... But in short, I had my first 1/2 week of classes, including a seminar on representations of Paris. I will also be taking a seminar on Material Culture. I am a teaching fellow and will be leading 3 discussion sections in support of Art History 111 (ancient to medieval) with about 20 students in each. I just finished preparing my section powerpoint, we're looking at the Venus of Willendorf, Palette of King Narmer, Standard of Ur, and the Alexander Mosaic and comparing them with some later works to get them used to looking and describing what they see in words. I had a blast putting it together.

Two years ago, Bruce was preparing for graduate school, see this post for example, and now I am. He starts teaching fulltime at the New England Institute of Art this fall and is also teaching a section of View Camera at RISD. Wish us both luck!

PhD bound and other news

My apologies first for not posting this earlier! I have been emailing to tell the news, but it's been a stressful/crazy spring, so forgive me if there is some repetition and a lot going on. I figured I’d just adapt my “news” email and post it here:

I am delighted to announce that I have been accepted into the PhD program in Art History at Boston University! So, Bruce and I will be around Boston for some time to come. My last day at the PRC will be in mid August. Classes start September 2nd. I will focus on the history of photography. It's a wonderful program - with a history of amazing scholars, professors, and curators - and I am thrilled to be a part of it.

I am honored and humbled to have served and been a part of the PRC and will have worked here for almost 25% of its existence. I am not the best with change and letting go - it will be hard, maybe in some ways easier and some ways harder as I will not be moving - but the time and place is right.

My aim is to emerge on the other side as a curator/educator and will try to stay involved in the contemporary photoworld in the meantime. Although I might take a break from reviewing portfolios and some other things, I hope to stay connected to this incredible community, regionally, nationally, and beyond.

As when it rains, it pours - on a sad note, my father found out he has esophagus cancer and had an operation. But, it's very early, thus he doesn't have to have radiation or chemo and the prognosis is good. Thus, I am even more grateful that I am close to home. In addition, I also was in an accident on my way to Bruce's thesis show (I am absolutely fine), and the insurance totaled my Saturn (it was old). Thus, I also had to look for and buy a new-to-me car amidst all of this (update: I got a 2001 Subaru outback, midnight blue). Ah life, funny isn't it?

Bruce passed his orals, finished the thesis, and graduated. He is teaching four classes this summer at the New England Institute of Art and will be there again in the fall. He also will teach view camera at RISD! My folks, Bruce, and I are looking at wedding venues near Woodstock, NY for a summer 2010 wedding. We have come to love the Catskills and it's halfway between Rochester and Boston. We are eager to begin the next phase of our life.

On another note, I am excited to select my classes and also that I never have to take the GRE again!

I hope that you are enjoying your summer (and let’s all hope that it stops raining soon).

Very best, Leslie

ABOVE: Someday, several years from now, I hope to don BU's elegant PhD regalia and be called, yes, Dr. Brown.

Congrats...2 years + 1 vanagon + lots of hard work = MFA

Bruce graduated this past weekend from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Exhibition and defense completed, he now just has to hand in the bound thesis.

Two years of being mostly apart is almost over. He worked very hard, produced a lot of great (and different) work and now has an MFA and a fulltime job to show for it. I am very proud of him for finding his calling and following his dream.

For those curious, you can read about Bruce's road to grad school here on Henry Horenstein's Teaching Photo. Henry wrote and featured several articles on the MFA graduate experience this past spring on teachingphoto.com - you can read ruminations here, grad school alternatives here, and another student's experience of a low-residency MFA program here.

To those who are not fresh out of undergrad and are considering going to grad school for an MFA, or to those newly-minted BFAs who are considering whether to wait or jump right in, let these stories inspire you and let you know you are not alone.

Next up for the Bruce?

Move part of his thesis show to NYC to Soho20 in Chelsea opening later this month, send off work that was just selected for Houston Center of Photography's 27th annual juried exhibition by Katherine Ware and get ready for a show at NEIA. Oh, and teach four classes (theory among them) this summer. No rest for the weary!

ABOVE: After being hooded, Bruce gets ready to receive his degree! Photo by Gordon Brown.

Bruce Myren featured on Teachingphoto.com

I mention my partner Bruce Myren occasionally in my posts, but usually it's in reference to our adventures and not his work (save a grad school update). Currently, he is featured on Teachingphoto.com, which deserves a special mention!

For those who don't know know about this wonderful Web site, it is the effort of the great Henry Horenstein and includes insightful and useful articles from photographers, teachers, and industry leaders. Henry asked Bruce to meditate on his experiences as an older student deciding to go to graduate school and then enrolling in an MFA program. Click here or above to read it. He starts his second, and last, year in a few weeks at UConn. I will miss him a lot, but he is almost done!

Bruce also has a busy schedule of upcoming exhibitions in 2008/2009, see below. Hope to see you there!

Danforth Museum of Art
"New England Currents series
Markers: Memory, Solo exhibition
October 22 – December 7, 2008
Framingham, MA
Artist Reception, November 22, 2008

Gallery Kayafas
The View Home, Solo exhibition
October 16 – November 22, 2008
450 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA
Opening Reception, First Friday, November 7, 2008

Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Fortieth Parallel and Other Adventures, Solo exhibition
July 2 – September 20, 2009
Turner's Falls, MA
Artist Reception and Talk, September 19, 2009

Instant Art Critic

From Pixmaven, via Modern Art Journal....Voila! The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator.

First, read the instructions below, then browse some of my results at the bottom, and then click the link HERE to test it out yourself.

Salvation is here!
Feeling inarticulate? Critically gauche? Or just verbally impotent?

We here at Pixmaven have developed The Instant Art Critique Phrase Generator so you need never again feel at a loss for pithy commentary or savvy "insights." With this device you can speak about Art with both authority and confidence. Use this marvellous tool to amaze and confound friends and colleagues. Don't miss this opportunity to menace and dumbfound professors and artists emeriti!

The instructions are simple-- type any five digit number in the field below, click 'Create,' and enjoy your ready-made Critical Response to the Art Product (or CRAP). Now you can produce CRAP critiques as easily and fluently as anyone in your MFA program!

Please use this product responsibly.

Here are some of my results:

With regard to the issue of content, the disjunctive perturbation of the spatial relationships brings within the realm of discourse the distinctive formal juxtapositions.

Although I am not a painter, I think that the internal dynamic of the negative space endangers the devious simplicity of the inherent overspecificity.

Dispatch from graduate school

We're midway through Bruce's first semester in the MFA program at UConn. He is swamped, but he loves it. I don't see him much, maybe Friday through Monday, but even that has been decreasing. Is there a support group for significant others who have a loved one in graduate school - i.e., grad school widows? (The tables will likely be flipped when I *hopefully* venture off myself someday.) On another note, it's pretty fascinating to watch a close one go through such a transformation.

Today, Bruce had his midterm crits and I drove down for dinner when they were done. It went well! Above, I have posted some of his critted work and below, one of his newest images on the 40th parallel, 97 West. Bruce recently was a visiting artist at Metropolitan College in Nebraska (this community college has over 200 photo majors!). While there, he visited 4 points on the 40th (95,96, 97, and 98) and the sixth principal meridian. They are some of the best 40th pics he's made yet--all made in the rain. A new looseness pervades them, especially this one in which he didn't clean the rain drop off of his lens (on purpose).

Oh, and as you can see above, these images are all single images; there is only one triptych/panorama, and it's a vertical one! In school he is investigating other, more emotional issues, but with the same signature Bruce preciseness, yet in a different way, such as a series of all the men in his family and view FROM the 16 place he's lived in Massachusetts TO where we live now. Congrats to all! Maybe I will see him at Christmas...

Random list post

So sorry for the long absence! We've been covered up at the PRC with the benefit auction and Bruce started school last week. I am exhausted, thus a random list post is in order.

- Over on the Soth blog, another discussion has ensued; this time it's about art and education. Helping Bruce research graduate schools, applying, and now his attending, especially as an older MFA student, keeps such ideas fresh on our minds. I am crafting my response as we speak.

- The new issue of PDN is refreshing and excellent. The fine art photo issue unpacks the gallery mystery (budget breakdowns are all!), profiles several curators and editors, and tackles digital versus traditional print collecting. It just hit the PRC library, thanks to our friends at PDN. It's so good, in fact, I plan on getting my own copy to use in my upcoming class talks/visits/lectures.

- At the following link you will see Bruce's new set of wheels and graduate school residence, a 1991 westfalia vanagon. Although some of his classmates and our friends think it's wacky, I am wholeheatedly behind the idea! Plus, it's a real 'bute.