Chris Stavroudis of Los Angeles, a consultant to the Getty Museum, travels the world to teach conservators how to clean paintings using the "Modular Cleaning System." Monica of Art CPR was honored to have the opportunity to train with conservators from around the globe, at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Conservators learned organic chemistry &  then applied it in the lab creating over 40 cleaning solutions for paintings! Next, the conservators trained to use the MCP computer program, while test cleaning both oil and acrylic paintings. Monica is pictured here with Emilia Cortez, an ancient Egyptian artifacts conservator who has been at the Metropolitan Art Museum over 25 years, and Renee Riedler, of Vienna Austria, who is currently living in the USA to conserve artifacts at the American Natural History Museum in NYC.  If you'd like to read more about the safer, less toxic aqueous cleaners we created in the lab, please click on the following link: 
"A Novel Approach to Cleaning: Using Mixtures of Concentrated Stock Solutions and a Database to Arrive at an Optimal Cleaning System" <http://cool.conservation-us.org/waac/wn/wn27/wn27-2/wn27-205.pdf>;

Would you like to see how this poster was restored?  For those of you who are curious to see the restoration process, I invite you to take a "digital peek" into my studio.  I am excited to announce the creation of my new YouTube channel!  I have just posted my first video showing part of my working process: in-painting a missing area of the poster pictured above.  See the video here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg_19fhsGDE

Can you tell what type of photos these are?  
A tintype (left) can be tested with a magnet. A daguerreotype (right) can be viewed as a negative image in the right lighting conditions. Some photos require lighting and 10x up to 120x magnification to be identified. Monica Mull, owner of Art CPR, gained expertise in dating and preserving old photos from Alice and Jae of the Image Permanence Institute's September class, hosted by the Chicago History Museum. Located at the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, the IPI has created a new website tool to help identify photo processes. ​See if you can use the site to identify some of your old family photos! Or make an appointment with Art CPR to identify and conserve your family heirlooms. 
​http://www.graphicsatlas.org

Sometimes an artist's work needs restoration in his or her lifetime. If an artist is still living, it is best to seek out the artist and request that they re-paint damaged areas of their own paintings. If not, that's where a conservator steps in with reversible paints. 
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In this case, Wisconsin artist Tom Uttech's painting had fire and water damage. Paint loss occurred as a result of water soaking the painting, especially at the bottom. Art CPR conservator Monica Mull worked in collaboration with the Museum of Wisconsin Art and Tom Uttech to preserve this large 60 x 75" painting that he created in 1965. Conservation work included dry cleaning the front and back, stabilizing loose paint & application of gesso to the areas of bare canvas. Now that those areas are primed with gesso, they are ready for Tom to re-paint.....Take it away Tom! 

​While cleaning this painting, I was excited to research and find the book it illustrated. Such a beautiful painting, of course it's the cover art! This book is Volume 3 in the My Bookhouse series, by Olive Beaupre' Miller, Copyright 1920.  (partially cleaned image on the left, & fully  cleaned painting on the right)