The big news!

Hi Everyone!

I've been a major slacker on my blog! Sorry! There's just too much to keep up with. 

Let me catch you up on the newest detail of my life...

I GOT A JOB!

A lot of people have been asking me for details so I think I'll post them here. I'm currently finishing my last semester of college while interning with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. I'm loving my internship at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Museums are my passion and I know I'm in the right place when I love go

ing to work everyday and I often stop throughout the day, shake my head, and marvel that I'm working on the National Mall with the nation's collection of Modern and Contemporary art. It's my favorite type of art. I'm loving my internship so much that I offered to stay on, if they would hire me. They told me that they wished they could, but there isn't any money left in the budget for another contracted employee. They were relying on unpaid interns to fulfill that section of the project. So though they told me I'm vital, invaluable, and that I fulfill a need that has never been fulfilled before, they have to let me go and replace me with another unpaid intern who doesn't have the same skills as me and will have to be trained in the entire sculpture survey project and The Museum System database, a task that to me seems extremely daunting.

I, on the other hand, found out about a job opening at the National Portrait Gallery, which is part of the Smithsonian as well. My friend Lauren told me about it and she took my resume in to the Office of the Director.

 I didn't even have time to follow up before I got a call for an interview. I was SUPER nervous at first, but my interview seemed to go well. I felt comfortable and confident. (Thanks Bremen for helping me prepare!) They told me that they would have the recommended candidate meet with the director of the museum. Within a few days I got a message saying that they'd like me to meet with the director, Marty Sullivan. I went in a few days ago and met with him. It was another comfortable meeting. He told me that he wanted someone in this position (administrative assistant/receptionist in the Office of the Director) who was gracious and relatively unflappable and that he found those qualities in me and would like to offer me the job. He told me that he understood that this was not the position that I wanted for the rest of my life and that the Portrait Gallery loves to hire from within and that he'd like to help me get where I want to be. In the Office of the Director I will work with many if not all of the departments and will really get to know people. They will have me help with projects and I could potentially move around within the museum. He told me that there is a top layer of seasoned employees at the NPG that have been there for 40 years and some started as interns. They will be retiring within the next few years and they are looking for fresh, young, talented people to step up and replace them. He seems so down to earth and personable and really wants to help his employees. He asked me what my goals were and I told him that I love doing registration work and ultimately want to be a curator.

I will be starting the position on April 6 and it is starting out as a 6-month contracted position. It has an hourly wage and no benefits. There is great potential to secure this position as regular employment or to move into another department as an employee. Then I will be a federal employee with all the benefits. But for now, I will take what I can get. It is quite common for interns to accept contracted employment after their internships and it more often than not turns into something more permanent. 

Now I'm trying to find housing within the D.C. 2nd ward (my singles' ward). I'm a little nervous but extremely grateful and definitely in shock. I don't know what to say to a lot of people, because I know SO MANY people who have been looking for jobs for so long and I feel kind of bad about how easy this all worked out for me. The only thing I can think of is that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers when the timing and the situation is right. I am also in an extremely narrow career field and in a situation like that, you learn and become adept at specific skills that not everyone has.

So here I am, still an undergrad with a new job. I haven't even finished my internship and will be doing both for two weeks. I might miss my own graduation, but I really hope I can make it back to Utah for it. I can't wait to be a Smithsonian employee, I can't wait to be a federal employee, I can't wait to be working 40 hours a week, and making some money (I've made 0$ this semester). I won't be making much, but it is my first full-time gig so it will be the most I've ever made in my entire life.

Mostly I'm amazed that this opportunity is happening at all. We are definitely in an economic crisis and people are getting laid off left and right. The museum world has been hit hard. That I got a job is a miracle and I hope my position is protected. I'm just so grateful right now.

Sorry this is so long, mostly it's a recording of my own thoughts and if you haven't read all of this I completely understand!

Once upon a time on a bus...

before

After

Ready for more?

This is a random pic of me in New York City. I like it so I just wanted to post it here on my blog. It was taken in the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art--for all you gentiles out there, ahem.) The museum is awesome because large parts of the exterior walls are cut out as window space so that the wonderful surrounding architecture can be enjoyed just as equally as the art in the gallery space.

Ok- Back to DC. Here's some highlights of the last couple of weeks.

The Phillips Collection:

This has become my favorite museum in DC. I'd love to work there. It is America's first Modern art museum. It's part restored home and part gallery space. The collection is superb.

This is the Mark Rothko room. It is a small room with a painting on each of the four walls. It creates a peaceful, contemplative atmosphere. I now understand why there is a chapel adorned with his works in Texas. Though there, all the paintings are black. Interesting, huh?

A well known masterpiece! Renior's Luncheon of the Boating Party

Cute!

I somehow managed to forget that the Cezanne piece I wrote my Senior Thesis on, Mont Sainte Victoire with Large Pine, has a twin at this museum. This is not the exact piece I wrote on but it's close enough. It looks almost exactly like it. I was in awe looking at it in person. The guy who took this picture wanted me to teach him a little about the piece so I told him the gist of my thesis. 

This was one of those classic days where I thought I looked fine, but when I saw a picture of me I realized I looked awful! But oh well. It was still a great day!

Here's an interesting Matisse. I think I love his work because of the linearity of his compositions. They are very architectonic and seem to create an interior space, divided into rectangles. I'm a sucker for patterns too. And gold, gaudy frames. 

I've always loved Degas' ballerina series. This piece is beautiful and I can imagine it was a cherished piece of the Phillips family collection. This is one reason why I love the Phillips Collection: Part of the museum is the restored home of the family that once owned the collection. We can walk through the music room, dining room, east parlor and west parlor and see the art hanging as it would have been.

This is the exterior of the Phillips home in Dupont, surrounded by beautiful embassies.

LOUISE BOURGEOIS:

This was the moment I had been waiting for...JERRY! Whitney this photo is for you!

The opening of the Louise Bourgeois retrospective was wonderful. It was the fanciest thing I've ever done. My name was on a list to get in. Everyone was dressed up (I felt underdressed :(). There were caterers walking around with hors d'oeuvres and drinks. It was really a fun night. I ran into some other interns from both BYU and the U of U, so we ended up hanging out.

Fancy huh? yeah I work there.

Friday after our briefings, I took Ashley and Kristen to the Hirshhorn and we found this cool sculpture in the sculpture garden.

Everyone...I'd like to announce that Spring is on the way. Here is the indisputable evidence:

MY FIRST CHERRY BLOSSOM! 

within a few weeks the city will be in full bloom. CAN'T WAIT!

Here's some more cute flowers between some of the Smithsonian Buildings.

Next we went to the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. The east building was designed by I.M. Pei. We studied it in my Modern Architecture class. LOVE IT. 

The underground concourse is amazing. Here I am on a moving walkway and all those lights around me blink on and off forming patterns and movements. It's really cool!

Here's my own version of the Mona Lisa Smile admiration of Jackson Pollack's Lavender Mist.

Next I went to the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Same complex.

Here's the Sheperd Fairy poster. It is way cooler in person. There is tons of texture, patterns, and its sprayed over newspaper articles. You can read the words still. Very interesting. In case you haven't noticed I'm kind of obsessed with this work. Not so much Obama, of course, just some of the concepts this work introduces. That's a whole other lecture.

I was happy to see my two homeboys representin'

The Hall of the Presidents was really awesome. I mean- it was kind of one of my favorite things here in DC- awesome. Each work tells so much about that president's era. I have a huge crush slash fascination with JFK so OF COURSE I fell even more in love when his portrait is all modern with arbitrary uses of color. It's so perfect for his era and for the fact that he was a promoter of the arts. This was painted by Elaine de Kooning, wife of Willem, the great American Abstract Expressionist painter. They share many similar techniques and characteristics.

Look how beautiful the enclosed courtyard is between the two buildings that make up the SAAM and the NPG.

Saturday morning I went with some friends to the Crime and Punishment Museum. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to go because I hate violence and graphic stuff. I close my eyes during almost every movie I watch, even movies like Transformers and Iron Man. I'm just really sensitive. But it turned out to be a SUPER fun museum. I only had a few bouts with my sensitivity.

It's set up like a tour through the history of crime and punishment. You go through all the eras and learn about infamous criminals. My favorite was probably the 1930s mobster era with the jazz music playing and the shot up car and stuff. It was really interesting.

We are definitely AMERICA'S MOST WANTED :) This is also where they film the show.

Whoops. We got busted.

Learning how to crack a safe!

Busted again.

Marie Antoinette is one of my heros. I think she was wrongly accused and wrongly executed. I think she was a good person. I want to be like her.

After the Crime and Punishment Museum, I eventually made my way across the mall. Here is the ice skating in the National Gallery Sculpture Garden. How CUTE! The view straight on is of the Hirshhorn.

I went to the Museum of Natural History to see a special orchid exhibition. They were having an Orchid Festival. Orchids are my favorite flower so I HAD to go! They were giving away potted orchid plants and temporary tattoos and all kinds of stuff! I was like a little girl again.

Aren't they BEAUTIFUL!

This is what my wedding flowers will look like. :)

Also at the Museum of Natural History, I went to see the Butterflies! There's a butterfly house where you can dance with live butterflies! I loved it so much! I seriously reverted back to my little girl self. The best part was that they just so happened to have this week the two species I studied for an art history paper. It was rewarding to see the two South American species in person.

This volunteer was releasing some newly emerged (newborn) butterflies.

These are Monarch chrysalises. They are crazy! They look like Jade and have gold ridges lining them. They look like they could be a necklace charm.

This is a swallowtail-one of the species I wrote about. The Blue Morpho is my favorite but it was too hard to photograph. They didn't keep their wings open long enough and when they did some other chick with her big ol' camera took up all the space so I couldn't get any pictures. She was kind of annoying me actually. But I was was still super happy. Butterflies and flowers are the best!