Professional Smoke Damage Restoration Services for Artwork, Antiques and Collectibles in Woolsey Fire, Malibu, Los Angeles

Posted on November 29, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

In the aftermath of fire in residential areas, once everyone and their pets have been accounted for and taken care of, the next human concern turns to finding and caring for items that represent the history of the person and/or family, their history and legacy. Items of value follow close behind in importance. How do you take care of your “stuff.” With 100,000’s of people evacuated, you can imagine the heightened concern for the safety of these types of close to the heart items. Once again, I don’t want to minimize the greater importance of life but, our specialty, expertise and profession are specific to helping you save, protect and restore your cherished family history items, collectibles, and art objects of value.

After the Thomas fire, not even 12 months ago, and the following mudslides in Montecito, CA the disaster response division of Fine Art Conservation Laboratories wrote up 60 proposals for insurance companies to estimate and propose the clean up and restoration procedures of 7,000 – 8,000 art related items of value.

Those concerned for the proper care, preservation and restoration of art related objects, antiques, family history items from the Woolsey fires can be confident to find empathetic experienced professionals to provide proper professional help.

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories has a special division of services to offer to disaster response companies, insurance companies and directly to collectors and owners to help respond professionally to the care, restoration and conservation of artwork, collectibles, keepsakes and antiques: Here’s a quick video:

We help compile inventories and reports for insurance reporting.

We can re-hang the artwork and secure art objects for seismic safety.

We are prepared to handle the logistics and treatments of many items at once. We are easy to communicate with and we can provide door to door service even over long distances.

As I write this the two most destructive fires in SOCal, the Camp Fire in Butte County is 45% contained, the Woolsey Fire in the Malibu and Thousand Oaks areas is 75% contained. Total for loss of life, structure loss and damage etc are not estimated yet. The Thomas Fire in the Ventura and Santa Barbara areas at the end of 2017 was classified as the largest wildfire (acreage) in the history of California. Over 1000 structures were lost in the firestorm driven by 40-70 mph winds in the backcountry which threatened densely populated areas prompting the mandatory evacuation of more than 16,000 residents with many more voluntarily leaving for more that a couple of weeks. Even though the fire was not driven into the cities, the wind blew smoke and ash onto 100,000s of local residents and polluted skies northward past San Francisco, 600 miles away.

In our recent past, we assisted families with requests for evaluations and inspections of smoked artwork, sculptures, family photos, model train sets, ceramics and collectibles… all of the cherished items that make up a family’s heritage and history. Once such family has been in the railroad business for 4 generations and you can image that connection they feel with their family’s memorabilia! What a heartbreak to see the damage… and the smell!!! But what a wonderful moment to share with them how everything can be cleaned up to good and new.

Let’s Talk! Contact us:

Scott M. Haskins

805 564 3438 office, 805 570 4140 mobile,

faclartdoc@gmail.com

Double cleaning of an oil painting

This painting required a double cleaning in order to remove the smoke and debris “safely.” No original paint was removed and the full value was returned.

Here are some testimonials and examples

of our work with other disaster response companies:

Smoke Damage (Testimonial): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMPlQ90iJtc

Water Damage (Testimonial Mrs. Dau): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Umg_5trfe8

Water Damage (Testimonial Las Vegas): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_YupoIRRcs

Damage in Storage – Rip Repair: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2Jxozdtl0w

Expert Author – Tom Antion Hurricane Testimonial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwBbcAF-j8A

Water Damaged Paintings: https://animoto.com/play/YGtMXOyRkR8Z0Y8QPx4gsw

Water damaged art treatment – blog: https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/in-lab/art-damaged-over-and-over/

Smoke Damage – Elite Restoration – Blog Post: https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/travel/smoke-damage-on-artwork-we-work-as-a-sub-to-disaster-response-companies/

Let’s Talk! Contact us:

Scott M. Haskins

805 564 3438 office, 805 570 4140 mobile,

faclartdoc@gmail.com

Posted in Disaster/Emergency Response | Tagged | 17 Comments

Long Beach Public Library WPA Mural Preservation and Restoration

Posted on October 24, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

The mural was painted in 1937 by Suzanne Miller under the auspices of the Work Project Administration Federal Art Project (Federal Art Project – FAP, Works Progress Administration -WPA).

Long Beach WPA Murals Before Conservation

These 9 sections of the mural are titled “Scenes From English Literature.” The 9 panels depict 15 scenes from English Literature: Hiawatha by Longfellow (panel 1), The Fairie Queene by Spencer (panel 2), Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (panel 3), L’allego & Il Penseroso by Milton, The Vicar of Wakefield by Goldsmith, and Rip Van Winkle by Irvins (panel 4), The King James Bible (panel 5), Alice in Wonderland by Carroll, Man With the Hoe by Markham, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Gray and The Compleat Angler by Walton (panel 6), The Lady of Shalot by Tennyson (panel 7), The Tempest by Shakespeare (panel 8), The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (panel 9).

The original library was originally across the street in Lincoln Park in Long Beach. It burned in 1972.

In 1937, the murals were painted in oil on canvas and then glued to the wall of the library. After the fire, the 9 mural sections were pulled off the walls, repainted and glued to plywood… not good for long term preservation. After their restoration, the plywood sections were bolted to the walls of the Children’s Reading room at the public library located at 101 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90882

As a result of the 1972 restoration, over the recent years the low quality varnish has yellowed badly changing all the colors… and water leaked onto the murals further damaging them.

Water stains, vast areas of fogged or bloomed varnish and crystallization of varnish resin.

One of the 9 sections of mural was badly wrinkled from the previous restoration.

Before and after relaxing and removal of wrinkles in mural section

The Mural Conservation Treatment Performed

So, present day, the City of Long Beach wanted to recuperate the original appearance of the murals and ensure their long term preservation. Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, a professional mural art conservation firm that had a long history of successful city, state and federal government mural restoration projects was contracted.

The cleaning process involved the safe varnish removal without removing the previous restorations. The original colors and details that were obscured were returned closer to their intended values, including better contrast and depth of field in the composition.

The badly wrinkled section was relaxed by warming and then reinforced for future stability.

Stable conservation grade varnish was brush applied to bring out the best appearance of the artwork.

We never use oil paint.

Inpainting or retouching is never done with oil paint. Conservation grade paint, which always remains removable and color stable, were used to correct or blend some of the previous restorations. New varnish provides for better surface protection against accidents and vandalism.

They are now ready for installation into the new public library facilities for the City of Long Beach, CA.

Questions: Scott M. Haskins, Virginia Panizzon, Julia Betancor –  Art Conservators 805 564 3438 faclartdoc@gmail.com

 

 

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Posted in Murals | 14 Comments

Oil and Acrylic Paintings on Canvas Bulls-eye Cracking Patterns – What they tell an Art Collector

Posted on October 19, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

What caused it?

How long does it take to show up after the artwork has been hit?

Will it get worse?

How will it get worse?

Will in impact the value?

“My painting got hit! Can I prevent the cracking pattern from forming?!”

These are all good art connoisseurship and art conservation questions that show you are alert and aware. Understanding the answers are good due diligence on your part and increase your depth of connoisseurship and the painting restoration process.

All cracking patterns on oil and acrylic paintings on canvas tell a story or form as a result of a condition. The bulls-eye cracking pattern is particularly easy to notice.

What caused it? Spider-web or bulls-eye cracks (concentraited cracking patterns) are extremely common on oil and acrylic paintings both young and old. There is only one reason they are visible or there is only one way they are formed: the painting got hit, poked, dented, jabbed, pressed on, dinged… in a specific spot, in the middle of the bulls-eye.  The patterns reflects the pattern of distribution of stress that occurred on the paint layers when there was impact or a puncture (or rip). Think of a pebble dropped in a pond of still water and the ripple effect and pattern that results. The energy of the impact of the pebble onto the surface of the water creates the pattern. In the case of a work of art, the energy/stress that spreads from the point of impact causes the cracking.

How long does it take to show up after the artwork has been hit? Once the impact/ding/puncture takes place, each painting is different depending on the painting technique: thick vs thin paint, thick vs thin ground layer, content of heavy metal based pigments vs earth pigments etc. I’ve seen the cracking pattern begin to form immediately, I’ve seen it take a few years to develop… and I’ve seen some very thinly painted paintings never develop a cracking pattern. Painting conservation experts can answer many other related questions.

Will it get worse? And how will it get worse? The answer is always “yes.” How severe the cracking will be will depend on the above paragraph plus exposure to heat and humidity with time. The cracking almost always leads to eventual flaking. Part of this equation also depends on how old the artwork is that gets damaged. The older it is the more likely it is that it will crack and flake sooner. Acrylic paint layers seems like they should be more flexible and resistant but 50 years of watching acrylic paintings age tell us this is NOT TRUE, They crack easily but then, after cracking, the paint layers pull apart or seem to shrink and open up a gap. So, they can be more visible and may not go down and disappear when lined. Art restoration treatments often treat these issues.

Will the cracking pattern impact the value? Well, generally speaking, anything that defaces or changes the original appearance of the painting and the intent of the artist changes the value lower. The severity of the cracking pattern changes has a bigger impact on the value. Obviously, it lowers the value because it becomes less desirable to other collectors who may want to buy it.

“My painting got hit! Can I prevent the cracking pattern from forming?!” Or, you may ask, “Can a painting with old cracking patterns be restored to look good (Can the cracking be removed)?” You’ll notice that the bulls-eye cracking pattern is also visible on the back of a painting where the paint layers are pulling on the canvas. In fact, on paintings where the stressed paint can not pull up, like on a panel painting, the bulls-eye cracking patterns do not form. This is proof that a punctured painting, for instance, that receives the proper reinforcementafter the damage will over-ride the cracking patterns and they will not form. In other words, a properly applied liningwill keep a painting from cracking. This also can be the method for removing or restoring an older cracking pattern. The expertise  and quality of the lining will make all the difference in the success of the results of the painting restoration treatment.

Questions: Scott M. Haskins, Oriana Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon Painting Conservators 805 564 3438 faclofficemanager@gmail.com

Posted in In Lab, Painting on canvas | Comments Off on Oil and Acrylic Paintings on Canvas Bulls-eye Cracking Patterns – What they tell an Art Collector

PBS Program on Rare Historic Oil Paintings of Spanish Missions of CA that Survived Horrific Circumstances, Painting Restoration Riverside at Mission Inn

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

The PBS program “Uncovered in the Archives” Producer called me a month or so ago all excited about something he considered to be super-interesting and important to report on: he heard there was a collection of 19thcentury paintings of the 21 missions of California by the early California artist Henry Chapman Ford that had almost been destroyed several times and were of National Treasure type of importance. He asked me if I knew anything about them.

(The 27 minute TV program video is at the end of this article.)

Left: Scott M. Haskins, Head of Conservation at Fine Art Conservation Laboratories; Dani Trynoski, Director of Marketing Mission Inn Foundation; Brad Pomerance Host and Co-Producer of PBS program “Uncovered in the Archives”

Well, as a matter of fact, I do! The very pleasant fellow and Host, Brad Pomerance invited me, unrushed and in every detail, to tell the story as I knew it of their saving, preservation and restoration… and he took copious notes. While the 36 paintings that make up Henry Chapman Ford’s series of all the 21 Franciscan missions of California are valued at several $10,000’s each one, their value in our society and even our country go far beyond their monetary considerations. They not only represent a major part of our State and Country’s heritage but were a major turning point and inspiration in architectural design and cultural identity. In their day, they pioneered the spread of the romantic Spanish Colonial and Mission Revival styles that became so popular.

San Diego de Acala by Henry Chapman Ford 1883 before restoration                                                      (actually this painting was “restored 3 times previously!)

He was enthralled with my explanation and stories of how they were damaged by leaks and floods, bugs, bird poop, high temperatures, bad storage and horribly rough handling, rips, holes, filth. They looked so bad they were thrown away TWICE (and dug out of the trash)!! At another time of risk to their preservation, they were snuck off and hid away to save them from being sold off by unscrupulous building contractors, how we dug them out of Pigeon Row in the vacant Historic Mission Inn, retrieved them secretly from storage facilities during a bankruptcy and, even though several were brought back all the way from extinction, all were brought back to stable, glorious “museum quality” condition.

Fast forward to the KVCR TV “filming” crew sequestering the location of the Mission Inn Museum in Riverside, CA with the total enthusiastic cooperation of the Mission Inn Foundation, Gina Cavallo Collins, the Mission Inn Foundation’s Executive Director, Karen Raines Collections Manager and Historian, Danielle Trynoski, Director of Marketing, Media and PR. See the entire PBS episode at the end of this article.

Karen Raines, Mission Inn Foundation interviewed by Brad Pomerance, PBS

Of course, The Friends of the Mission Inn were all too happy to enjoy the well deserved recognition for their history and art saving efforts decades ago with the story telling powers of several “old timers” who were there when it happened.

And Scott M. Haskins, Head of Conservation from Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, dedicated the entire day of shooting to consult and be interviewed for FACL’s role in doing the fine art conservation treatments.

Before and After Professional Painting Conservation Santa Cruz Mission

Brad Pomerance Host and CJ Eastman, Co-Executive Producers at KVCR TV choreographed the production circus as a very professional and able team of 7 managed lights, cameras and action to make the 30 minute program. In addition to these professionals, Kimberley Garcia Make up Artist from All Around Glam kept everyone looking their best for the camera.

Here is a short video clip of the program shooting process (full video of entire program is at end of this blog post).

PBS program “Uncovered in the Archives” tells the incredible story of extremely important historic oil paintings of old Spanish missions of California that survived against horrific odds and their preservation and painting restoration, featuring Scott M. Haskins Fine Art Conservator. This educational PBS program by Affiliate KVCR TV was shot on site at the historic Mission Inn in Riverside, California. The program aired on PBS affiliate KVCR TV.

This is the 27 minute PBS TV program…

For more on the great historical importance of the early paintings of the missions of CA, CLICK HERE https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/19th-century-paintings-of-the-santa-barbara-mission-changed-our-history-and-our-communities/

 

Brad Pomerance Host/Co-Executive Producer

CJ Eastman

KVCR TV PBS Affiliate

310-266-4437

brad@bigmistproductions.com

 

Friends of the Mission Inn

Sharla Wright

6579 Lassen Ct.

Riverside, CA 92506

760-576-8619

sharlawright@att.net

 

Mission Inn Foundation

Danielle Trynoski, Director of Marketing, Media and PR

3696 Main St.

Riverside, CA 92501

951-781-8242

 

Scott M. Haskins, Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, Head of Conservation

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories

805 564 3438

faclartdoc@gmail.com

 

Kimberley Garcia Make up Artist

All Around Glam

323 365 5196

Posted in Consultations, FACL in the media, In Lab, Professional activities | Tagged | 14 Comments

Art Restoration Services, San Diego

Posted on October 6, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

This last week I was in San Diego, CA visiting clients and making new connections in the painting conservation profession and for the first time decided to stay at a downtown Marriott Hotel. Downtown is quite the urban cement jungle with lots of tall buildings and the noise of dealing with that jungle and airport in close proximity. I remember growing up in LA, we’d go to the SD area beaches often to surf and there were about 1/2 million people. Now there are over 1.5 million in the city and 3.5 million in SD County. That’s a lot of growth to deal with. I think all of SOCal has had that growth to deal with in the respective  infrastructures.

Obviously, a location of business for me is the Balboa Park and its museums, conservation labs and exhibitions. Its not only a pleasure to visit such a community treasure that was put together by community minded benefactors at the turn of the 20th century but its interesting to see the comparison with the architecture we saw in Spain this past year when we went to Salamanca, Madrid, Toledo and surrounding communities. The Spanish style in California is a sub-style of the Arts and Crafts Movement that was so prevalent in the US starting in the 1880s and exploding in CA along with its population.

The Spanish Style was promoted at the end of the 1880s as a Mission Revival Style, embraced fully by William Randolph Hurst (Hurst Castle) and Frank Miller (The Mission Inn). The paintings of the missions by Henry Chapman Ford and Edwin Deakin, both considered widely by scholars as a National Treasure in the US, were published extensively to enliven the romantic fantasy of readers. Here is an article on these paintings. Later this month, I will be interviewed by an PBS affiliate doing a special on the Mission Paintings by Henry Chapman Ford.

Several of our clients live in the golf course ranches of Carlsbad and I love visiting with them, talking about collecting and working with them to have their art collections of early CA Impressionism be in the best possible condition. Their interest in our state’s early history usually reflects personal experiences of growing up in Southern CA and the paintings are recognized internationally as a quality art movement of great value. A great percentage of art conservation work that we do in or lab is with early CA paintings… for instance, we have worked on over 375 paintings by Edgar Payne over the years. A new visit this time was the Lodge at Torrey Pines. They have a nice little collection of early California Impressionists that I took time to review. Among the projects to work on that I picked up on this trip is a gorgeous painting of the San Diego area by renown early CA Impressionist Alfred Mitchell.

Over the years, our work with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has included consistent work with the History Department for projects worldwide. In Sept we completed a mural restoration project in Logan Utah in an historic chapel. We also have a project brewing in Los Angeles. Here is a shot of the temple in San Diego.

Our course, we love visiting with clients in the San Diego area. We pick up and deliver and perform on site, in home, in office consultations for private people and institutions. To chat about your painting restoration questions, call and speak with art conservators Oriana Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon or Scott M. Haskins 805 564 3438. faclartdoc@gmail.com

Posted in Consultations, Professional activities, Travel | Tagged | 10 Comments

Art Conservation Cleaning of Artwork With Saliva Wins Chemistry Harvard’s Ig Nobel Prize

Posted on September 24, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

Painting restoration and cleaning artwork is the subject of what we suspect is humor from Harvard. The award was reported in “Chemistry World” which has been given out since 1991 called the “Ig® Nobel Prize”, “For achievements that first make people LAUGH then make them THINK”

This year’s chemistry Ig Nobel prize has been awarded for showing that human saliva is a good cleaning agent for paintings and historical artifacts. Its not really a traffic stopping discovery… its been part of the restoration processes, probably, for millennia.

The three Portuguese conservation scientists,  Paula Romão, Adília Alarcão and César Viana’s showed in their 1990 paperhow they measured saliva’s effectiveness at removing dirt from antique gilded sculptures. They acknowledged that saliva is often used as a cleaning solvent when working with delicate materials such as gold leaf and ceramics. It si also used for many other artifacts including paintings.

“I know that it seems quite improbable, but human saliva is indeed an effective cleaning agent for surfaces like paintings, sculptures and gilded wood. But don’t try to use it on your kitchen counters,” Romão said in an acceptance video that was played at the awards ceremony at Harvard University.  “The cleaning action is in part due to an enzyme in saliva, α-amylase, which breaks down starch into simple sugars.”

The photographs show Painting Conservator Oriana Monemurro, who has discovered through small sampling tests, that that the gray on the painting is most safely removed with saliva, especially in the areas of the flowers which seem to be the most sensitive to cleaning.

The ancient Roman, Plini the Elder, philosopher, art historian is reported to have declared that more works of art have been damaged by inept over-aggressive cleaning that all the floods, fires, volcanoes and earthquakes in the history of the world. He was well acquainted with disasters; he died in a pyroclastic ocean surge while trying to rescue friends from the erupting of Vesuvius in 79 ad. Saliva would have been a welcomed and acceptable safe method of cleaning to Plini.

More interesting research taking up the time of Harvard research students and perhaps their grant monies, theIg Nobel Prizesare awarded annually to celebrate improbable scientific research across a variety of disciplines. Among this year’s winners are Marc Mitchell and David Wartinger, who were awarded the medicine prize for using roller coaster rides to hasten the passage of kidney stones, and an international team who won the biology prize for demonstrating that wine experts can smell the presence of a single fly in a glass of wine.

For interesting short painting restoration videos of stories and processes click here for the YouTube channel of Fine Art Conservation Laboratories.

Questions? Call Art Conservators Oriana Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon, Scott M. Haskins at 805 564 3438 faclartdoc@gmail.com

 

 

Posted in In Lab, Painting on canvas | Tagged | 15 Comments

“This guy has an art restoration company with an entrepreneurial spirit” Tom Antion interviews Scott M. Haskins

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

Tom Antion, one of the most successful Internet marketers in the world interviews Scott M. Haskins, Entrepreneur, Fine Art Conservator (an internationally renowned painting restoration firm that provides a variety of professional services on artwork and murals, including disaster response for art related items damaged in hurricanes, floods and fires) and Author of the Save Your Stuff Series, of which over 10,000 copies have been distributed to help people save their valuable stuff like collectibles, artwork, family keepsakes, etc at home. We’re up close and personal with Scott in this episode of Screw the Commute podcast.

The podcasts can be found on ALL of the major podcast directories, such as Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, Stitcher, Blubrry, TuneIn, Spotify and many others. You can also play the latest episode of Screw the Commute with Amazon’s Echo devices (thanks to TuneIn) by saying “Alexa, play the Screw the Commute podcast”.

For media on Scott M. Haskins’ click here: https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/media-room/

 Access this episode’s unique page with

show audio, notes, transcript and other goodies: https://screwthecommute.com/24

 

Here is the content of the podcast

[02:19] Tom’s introduction to Scott M. Haskins

[03:11] What Scott does for art conservation

[04:41] Wannabee and authentic paintings

[08:24] His regular University job

[10:33] A turn in the economy and technology

[14:37] Avoid getting screwed in business

[16:02] Natural disasters and insurance

[18:00] Bizarre and funny stuff in this business

[21:06] Best and worst things about working for yourself

[22:14] What Scott offers today

[25:11] Tom was worth $79!

[26:00] Sponsor message

[26:37] A typical day for Scott

[31:30] Parting thoughts for us Screwballs

The transcript for this audio interview follows further along in this article

Scott M. Haskins graduated in 1978 from the Italian government  (Lombardy Region – ENAIP) 3 year master’s degree level painting conservation program run in conjunction with the Istituto Centrale del Restauro (ICR) in Rome.

Between 1978 and 1984 Mr. Haskins established the painting conservation laboratory at Brigham Young University, in Utah, USA which also served the historical collection of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsas they prepared to build two art museums.

In 1986, Mr. Haskins established Fine Art Conservation Laboratories (FACL) in Santa Barbara, CA where they presently provide professional painting conservation services over a wide geographical region. FACL is also recognized and well known nationwide and internationally for art restoration work on murals. They consult on damaged art issues as an expert witness for the Los Angeles court system and for insurance companies, nationwide. FACL has a specialized division of disaster response services for art related items (wildfires, house fires, floods and mud slides, earthquakes etc).

He is the author of the best-selling book series, Save Your Stuff, collection care manuals for collectibles, heirlooms, family history items and is a speaker internationally on the subject. He is also the author of several blogs and has a presence on several social media sites. He often uses these assets to help small museums, foundations and historical sites fundraise.

Save Your Stuff Book Cover 1st Edition

Save Your Stuff Book

For media on Scott M. Haskins’ click here: https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/media-room/

The podcasts can be found on ALL of the major podcast directories, such as Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Google Play Music, Stitcher, Blubrry, TuneIn, Spotify and many others. You can also play the latest episode of Screw the Commute with Amazon’s Echo devices (thanks to TuneIn) by saying “Alexa, play the Screw the Commute podcast”.

 Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast

 Higher Education Webinar – It’s the second webinar on the page: https://screwthecommute.com/webinars

Screw The Commute – https://screwthecommute.com/

 

Fine Art Conversation Laboratories – https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/

Collection Care Tips – http://collectioncaretips.com/

Save Your Stuff website – http://saveyourstuff.com/

Phone: 805-564-3438

Save Your Stuff – https://www.amazon.com/Scott-M.-Haskins/e/B001KC8PPY

Scott’s YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/bestartdoc

The Entrepreneurial Podcast and Tom

“Screw the Commute” is a podcast and private Facebook group designed to inspire you to start your own business and/or take the business you have to much higher levels. Tom Antion, our fearless leader, has never had a job. He’s always had his own business. Starting with nothing, he owned five apartment buildings and a hotel BEFORE graduating college.

Tom has actually been entrepreneurial since he was nine or ten years old. Tom’s dad came from Syria through Ellis Island in the early 1900’s, became an entrepreneur, made Tom into an entrepreneur, and Tom has helped thousands of people start, run and improve their own businesses.

 A Hollywood documentary is in production about Tom that celebrates entrepreneurs, called “The American Entrepreneur” you can watch the trailer at Facebookand keep in touch because you are invited to the big online premiere party coming soon.

Please share this episode link far and wide: https://screwthecommute.com/24

 

Read Full Transcript Episode 024 – Scott Haskins, Art Conservator

[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:27] Hey everybody it’s Tom here welcome to screw the commute episode number 24. We’ve got a very unique businessman here and a very unique business I’m going to tell you about here in a minute. Don’t forget to listen to Episode 23. We had a raucous interview with Vickie Sullivan including, and this is a first for me, a hit man offered her a free stabbing for her excellent customer service. I’m not kidding. It was absolutely true.

[00:01:07] So our sponsor today is how to automate your business e-book some of the techniques in this book. I mean we tried to figure it out. Have saved me something like literally seven million keystrokes in just typing e-mails alone over the years. There’s tons of other tips in this book that I used to handle as many as 150000 subscribers and run my entire business with one part time temp person. The only time I started adding employees was when my accountant called me up and said hey Tom you’ve got too much retained earnings. And I’m Like what??? I said, what does that mean. He said well you’re going to have to pay more tax. I’m like you kidding me. I’m keeping my nose clean. I’m not buying boats and airplanes and hookers and everything else and I got to pay more taxes. Yep yep that’s what it is. So that’s when I started hiring people because I’d rather pay for jobs not bombs. So anyway this ebook shows you how to automate your business and handle lots of people, bring in more money. I’ll tell you a little bit more about it later.

[00:02:20] All right let’s get to today’s topic. Scott M. Haskins is an art conservator with fine art conservation laboratories, an internationally renowned painting restoration firm that provides a variety of professional services including disaster response for art and murals. He is also the author of the save your stuff series of which 10000 copies have been distributed to help people save their stuff at home. Scott’s been working with me since 2008 and I’m really proud of the great things he’s done. So Scott are you ready to screw. The commute.

[00:03:01] I’m always ready. You know that’s not my wife’s name. That’s right it isn’t. So tell everybody what you do.

[00:03:12] Well as you said we do restoration of paintings but there’s a lot more to it than that. There are many different services that we provide. But generally speaking we restore paintings that might be sold at auction or with dealers. If you had a rip in a painting that was your great grandmother we can make that disappear. But we also work on murals in public places and historic buildings. And just you know a variety. It has paint on it and it needs restoration stabilizing preservation then we do that work do that work for private people. We do it for governments. We do it for the trade. So there’s like I said there’s a lot more to it than that.

[00:03:54] Well how how does one get into a field like that. How did you get into it.

[00:03:59] When I was a kid I always was interested in science and was interested in the arts but I never knew till I got it through to the end of my bachelor’s degree that you can blend the two and my department chairman said well why don’t you go into art conservation and I said well what’s that. Well it’s the application of science to the preservation of art. So I ended up going to Italy for my master’s degree program and loved that experience spent several years over there and that’s how I got into the field.

[00:04:31] Wow. I didn’t know they had courses and things on that. So if you ever found a painting that somebody thought was real and wasn’t.

[00:04:43] Oh my gosh. That’s like a constant part of our diet around here.

[00:04:47] Hope you get paid before you tell them.

[00:04:51] That is actually a problem sometimes. You know people I mean I can keep you here all day long with stories about wannabe paintings and and every once in a while you know I’ve got lots and lots of stories about something picked up at a garage sale that was real. Or that people just didn’t know what was going on. Really quick one there was some folks about two hours from here that put their mother into an assisted living situation she was on your way out. They were going through the house and found a painting in a closet in the house that was not on the wall was stuffed in a closet. They said they told their mom she was still coherent. Well what the heck is this doing in the closet. I dug that out of the trash decades ago. I never liked it. Just throw it away. Nobody wanted it. Before they threw it away they called me we brought it into the lab looked at the signature underneath our microscope and we were able to decipher the squiggle and it was Della Moyer. Well nobody’s ever heard of Della Moyer as an artist. But we found out that there is a guy in Amsterdam who wrote a coffee table book about this artist who lived back in the 20s and the 30s.

[00:06:04] And Christie’s sold the painting at auction in Hong Kong a couple of months later for one point four million dollars.

[00:06:11] It’s good to visit your mom’s once in a while.

[00:06:18] And that was like the totality of their inheritance too so they hit the lottery. I can keep you here all day with stories like that.

[00:06:28] But I understand you’ve got big contracts from murals and cities and things like that.

[00:06:34] Oh yeah. Actually you played a big part in that. The murals are something that are usually part of a you know like public art part of a government responsibility. And I have worked on murals since day one in fact the very first week that I went to school in Italy and I was still kind of wondering if this is the field I want to go into they put me on scaffolding and a monastery that was built in the year 800. It had been abandoned and then converted to this very high level scientific school. And I was working on murals dated 1365 over a hundred years before Columbus. And so I’ve worked on murals my whole life. One of the other services that we provide is that of being a expert witness for the courts. They we’re taking my deposition here a little while ago. And the other attorney was you know being kind of smart alec says well how many actual murals have you worked on. I said well here let me count I didn’t actually know and I’ve got all the jobs written down on a consultation on a resume type of thing. And I counted up 360 mural projects. Will that do for you? Will that qualify me to be an expert?

[00:08:01] Oh that’s actually a good point for our screwballs on here. If you have an expertise it’s another income source. You got paid for that right?

[00:08:11] Oh absolutely I don’t do anything for anybody if I don’t get paid.

[00:08:14] Yeah. There you go. Except for your wife.

[00:08:20] Yes so that’s another way to turn your expertise into money. Now did you ever have a job?

[00:08:27] When I got back to the United States from working in Europe, I was actually headhunted by a university who brought me on as an employee of course in the Fine Arts Department. I was supposed to set up a restoration a conservation lab for them and I was there for about six years. But I was kind of in charge of everything and you know I didn’t answer to anybody I was in charge of my own budget and no one knew what I was doing.

[00:08:55] Typical university art conservator.

[00:08:58] Yeah I loved the environment of the university. But as soon as I got out of the university environment I got a call from the Greek Orthodox Church the main Greek Orthodox Church in Los Angeles that had water infiltration through the dome and there had been dribbles down their murals and they said we want to sign you as our conservator. And I thought you know what I am going to keep all of the money in this project. This is great. I love it. So I have an entrepreneurial spirit. I love getting out there and working things out with people and see how business can be developed and utilize creativity and developing business ideas which are all things you can’t do when you work for somebody else.

[00:09:47] So that was kind of a turning point then the Greek Orthodox Church.

[00:09:51] Yeah absolutely. That was my aha moment you know. This is the best situation for me for sure.

[00:09:58] You know it’s bizarre about that is you kindly give me a lot of credit for your success and I appreciate that. Let me tell you this. I was baptized Greek Orthodox. That’s what’s bizarre about that.

[00:10:16] Thanks Tom you’ve helped me more than I know.

[00:10:20] So you’ve been in my program and you brought a young geek with you to help implement which I always suggest. Certainly. And then you start getting these big contracts as people found you. You did the work. That’s the whole thing.

[00:10:35] Well in 2008 you might remember that there was a turn in the economy and not only that there was a turn in technology. Also it was about 2008. And in fact everybody that calls me at my business we ask how did you hear about us or who referred to us and before then about 80 percent of the people call our business would tell me that they found us in the Yellow Pages. Well I don’t know how many of your listeners have a big yellow pages at home that they consult in. About 2008, we stopped hearing that it was like within several months. It was something that was just super surprising to me. Nobody was telling me that they found me in the Yellow Pages anymore. It’s like the Yellow Pages business dried up in less than a year.

[00:11:25] They were good for holding up desks and stuff.

[00:11:30] So I started looking for a way to generate business. People were saying well I would go online go on our computer and there was a whole development a whole change in how the Internet was working back about that time. And so I looked you up I found you and you were exactly the Guru I needed and it was because of your optimizing. Oh actually that the thing that I do every day is that when I put an article out in a blog or on the website or I post a video and I’ve got over 300 videos on YouTube that are all done through things that you taught me when ever I do all these things I know I have a feeling of what it takes for people to find me on the internet and I’m in a very small niche. So if you put in painting restoration Salt Lake City I come up all over the place or Las Vegas or Orange County or Los Angeles or you go repair a rip in a painting Beverly Hills I come up.

[00:12:34] Because you’re using keywords effectively which is our first lesson here.

[00:12:38] Yeah it was. And I did all the things that you showed me how to do. I did all the things that you’ve asked me to do that told me to do with production of videos that kind of thing. I did it to promote a book. It completely up’d my game when it came to the conservation restoration services that we provide. I wasn’t even expecting that.

[00:13:04] Yeah. You show up everywhere. That’s our first episode. Episode one was all about keywords because that’s the whole basis for everything. They sit down and they type in words things that they’re looking for and if you don’t have those words optimized all over your sites and your videos and blog posts and all that stuff you’ll hear the crickets chirping.

[00:13:26] Well you know since 2008 the Internet changed or evolved a lot so people are always saying OK well how do you get found on the Internet. Well they’re doing it different. You can’t. And Google doesn’t like Facebook. And you know and this and that but I’m it’s such a small niche that when somebody needs me they look for me in a particular way. So in that way is the way I put it out there. And so when they look for me they find me whether it was in 2008 or 2018. It’s still working for me. I mean I love all the updates that you do and the quality coaching that you do all of that is much much much appreciated I implement absolutely everything I can.

[00:14:10] I know you do and that’s what I love about you actually do the stuff I mean my friend John Kramer was on an earlier episode and he’s a consultant I heard him say one time you know I’m thinking about doubling my consulting rate and giving half of it back if they just do what I tell them. So have you ever gotten screwed on any of these job.

[00:14:38] Not very often. That’s a business practice. You know there’s part of it is the enthusiasm and your expertise that you take into starting a new business. But there are some mathematical equations and just some proper business savvy that you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have some street smarts you’ve got to get a team together to implement ideas. In my opinion business is a team sport.

[00:15:07] Yeah and you need written agreements.

[00:15:10] Absolutely. You need to cover your fanny with the legaleze. And so that’s all important you can’t just wing it. Correct me on this but I think my perception is that our society is more litigious today than it was 10 years ago.

[00:15:28] Oh sure sure some companies, all they are is in business to sue you. That’s their business model like the image places they can find an image that you don’t have a license for. And they do a federal lawsuit against you for six seven thousand dollars and settle for four. And you really got hammered. That’s their whole business model is to do it. While I have you I was thinking of one question I wanted to ask you what advice would you have given or would you give to those people in Hawaii with all this. You know the lava just you know burning their houses up.

[00:16:03] Grab your ankles and kiss your ass goodbye. There’s more to just burning lava. I mean if your house is overrun with lava like I said You’d better have left early and taken everything with you. But I mean a lot of times, we just had an enormous fire storm roll through Santa Barbara and Ventura area in California in fact it was the largest fire in the history of California. This happened last December and the fire was in the back hills and so it did take out I don’t know six or eight hundred structures the damage that occurred with most of the population was it the wind blew all the ash and all the smoke onto the city and the residential areas for three to four weeks. All of the in fact 100 percent of the insurance claims that we’re working with don’t have anything to do with anything getting burned up. It all has to do with smoke damage. And then of course as you know in a fire they put it out with water. And so you can have water damage. You’ve got smoke damage and you’ve got heat and you’ve got water damage there’s all kinds of things follow up when you’ve got a hot situation. Then of course we thought it was a godsend, a heavenly sent answer to prayer to dump a bunch of water on us here in our area. But we didn’t realize that the amount of water in the very short time would uproot huge boulders and we had an enormous mud slide down on it and wiped out entire neighborhoods of high end homes and high end collections. I think there’s probably billions, with a B, plural billions of dollars of gold and jewels mixed in that mud. There’s going to be our archaeologists working there.

[00:17:48] They’ll be guys with metal detectors as soon as they can get there.

[00:17:52] All that mud is three and four feet deep.

[00:17:54] Oh boy.

[00:17:55] So anything take it on a different note does anything bizarre funny happen in this business?

[00:18:02] Well bizarre and funny one of the funniest things in any business of course are the people and their personalities get all kinds you get somebody who’s educated they come in and they just speak to you matter of factually and you give them the information and then you move forward. But I’ve had people come to me with treasure maps that they think had been painted out to keep them hid up from the Nazis then were rolled up in somebody’s underwear and smuggled into the United States and they were being brought to me so I could take off over the paint on the top and rediscover the treasure map and they were willing to let me invest. You get dingdongs like that. I really have some interesting things and you can’t believe how elaborate some of these people’s thought processes are. Like someone will go out and take fifty thousand dollars and print up a whole book to legitimize a painting that’s supposed to be authentic. But it wouldn’t be authentic in a million years. They’re trying to construct all around this painting all kinds of evidence that the painting is real so they can sell it. And I understand their motivation. I mean a couple of months ago I was asked to come and look at a secret painting in a bank vault. And it turned out to be a painting that had three separate appraisals of over 88 million dollars for the painting. So I mean we get involved with some really great stuff but we also get involved with some certifiable people.

[00:19:46] If you took possession of an 88 million dollar painting to work on it that’s a lot of responsibility. That’s like 88 million dollars worth of responsibility.

[00:19:56] Well obviously we put a release on there and we let their insurance company take care of that. So that’s not a problem. And then we also make sure that we’re not going to be sued by the insurance company if there’s a claim. So they’re coming in a back door to get us. You know that’s part of being savvy from a business point of view. But you know we had a van Gogh in the lab this was years ago. It’s probably like an a 50 million dollar range. The question we worked on this and the insurance company was going to double the insurance premium if we took the painting out of our lab which is a lock down situation at night with all kinds of alarms. Police responses. That’s just our normal way we do it. But at night if we were going to take it out of here and put it into a bank vault they’re going to charge us double the insurance rate because they felt that we were more secure.

[00:21:02] That’s pretty good deal. What’s the best thing you like about working for yourself and what’s the worst thing.

[00:21:08] Possibly the thing that gives you most angst would be dealing with employees. You know you’re always looking for those that blend well with your personality and everybody’s on the same page. They’re going to be a good person you know a good part of the team I’m maybe overly sensitive about this right now because the last three office managers I’ve hired were Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde where you hire one person they turn out to be completely different than the person you’re hired. That leaves you kind of feel feeling snakebit. So that’s maybe the worst part of it. The worry is always cash flow and cash flow is king. But if you set your business up correctly and watch your overhead then that’s less of issue. But on the other hand one thing that I love the most about being in business for myself is cash flow.

[00:21:58] Yes exactly right. It’s all yours.

[00:22:03] It’s a religious experience.

[00:22:07] So what can people do to buy something off you. I mean they should definitely get the save your stuff book for sure.

[00:22:17] I’ll do one better than that right now. Well I recently did. And this was a result for me. I put together what I call a multimedia e-book. And I haven’t printed the book but it’s about 210 or 20 pages. But throughout the book there are all kinds of live links and videos there’s like 35 embedded videos into this book. So instructional videos so that as you go through the e-book there’s lots of live entertainment going on. I wrote the book it’s called collection care tips you can find it at collectioncaretips.com.

[00:22:55] We’ll put that in the show notes everybody.

[00:22:57] Well anyway the genealogy industry glomed onto this book with both hands and just loved it. And so I offered it to the online genealogy industry as an added bonus or as a giveaway to the people and I don’t know if you know about the genealogy industry. But it is unbelievably gargantuan. This is from personal contact with the five biggest companies and their accumulative or their combined email list is half a billion people. The top five companies. I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap but still half a billion. Just incredible. So I offered to these genealogy companies the opportunity to let their patrons download my book for free. And so that is still an offer that’s running. And if you send your folks to collectioncaretips.com and they just need to opt in and then they can download this book for free which I’ve had some people tell me they think it’s worth hundreds of dollars. Take care of things at home better protect their items that are important to them. What do you do with brittle family documents. How do you take care of your photographs. You ever had a situation Tom where you were afraid of losing your family photos in a natural disaster.

[00:24:23] Yeah I was freaking out I had to run out of Hurricane Isabel or no hurricane or something else and grab everything and you know throwing man in a bin and trying to get out of here.

[00:24:35] I remembered you we were on the phone I was telling you what to do and up then and I had you send me some scans of them. No no. I was at your house and I took pictures. You remember that just. I was at your house. Right. And I had taken photographs of all your family pictures while I was there. And then after the hurricane hit if they had been blown to Oz I would have been able to send you a copy of them all dialed in and look in perfect high resolution you would be able to reprint them. So there were several different things I was teaching you to do that would have saved your fanny had your house been blown to Oz.

[00:25:12] You know what’s interesting I determine Scott that I am definitely and I have proof I’m worth seventy nine dollars because I was going through my mother’s stuff the other day and I found the bill from the hospital when I was born. Three days in the hospital and delivering me seventy nine dollars. So I am at least worth seventy nine dollars. I have proof. How much is that per pound. Oh I don’t know it’s divided by eight. I mean almost ten dollars a pound. That’s pretty good. Great. So give us that Web site again and we’ll put that in the show notes. collectioncaretips.com.

[00:26:00] All right we need to take a brief break for our sponsor which is how to automate your business E-book the seven figure guide to getting and handling and lots of customers without pulling your hair up. This book covers equipment free programs and services backing up stuff smart phone shortcuts photo editing auto responders upselling all kinds of automatic stuff to help you run your business so you can check that out at GreatInternetMarketing.com/automate and that will also be in the show notes.

[00:26:35] Scott, tell them what’s a typical day look like for you.

[00:26:40] I like getting up early but I’ve got an office at home and then I also have.

[00:26:45] So you screw the commute every day.

[00:26:53] If you have to commute all the way across Santa Barbara it takes about 20 minutes. So I’ve never been in a situation where I had to be. Well that’s not true because weekly I go see clients at their locations and we do a lot of work done in the cement jungle of Los Angeles. So you now I’m often out there with 50000 of my favorite people just kind of just moving along. Only have once a week or less. And it’s also by choice. I don’t have anybody pushing my buttons. So that’s nice. But I start out by taking care of a few essentials there at the house. And it’s often that I just say hey I’m going to screw it going into work today. Call up. You know we stay in touch with everybody electronically or by phone. And I stay home and take care of all.

[00:27:45] Just call Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and tell them you’re not coming in today.

[00:27:48] They’re not invited to the party.

[00:27:50] I’ve got a new office manager. Fantastic. You know I’ve always got remote projects that we’re proposing or we’re following through on things and so I’ve got plenty of things to do online and I’m always working on an article or a video to put on, like I said we’ve got 300 videos on our YouTube channel which is YouTube.com/bestartdoc.

[00:28:17] Ok we’ll put that in the show notes also.

[00:28:20] But the things that really keep me motivated keep me pushing along are you know we’ve got some projects like we’re trying to promote better are our series of books on save your stuff. We’ve got a couple of big big projects in fact maybe the biggest project of my career is coming down the pipe and part of this is thanks to you. Thankfully I’ve already paid you back. Well anyway we got a call a couple of months ago. We got a call from a couple of months ago the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. And I’m a painting restoration guy and the National Gallery is right across the mall. But the favorite museum there is this air and space museum. I mean it is such an exciting historical place. And you know what’s really funny is usually when you hear museum people talk about their artifacts. You know they’re talking about a little bowl or maybe somebody’s bones or you know somebody like an artifact they found well in this museum an artifact is a 90 foot rocket. And an artifact is like the original plane the Wright brothers. I mean it just like it puts a smile on my face to hear them talk about their collection. In the museum there are five gargantuan murals that need to be moved because they’re going to be going through a renovation and they called me because I was in the system as a pre-approved expert. And that’s only happened because I’ve known how to get myself out there online which is all started with you.

[00:30:20] One question I wanted to ask and this probably flows off of this one too. Let’s say you get a mural in Toledo Ohio. You have to go there and live there for a week or two weeks or a month or what?

[00:30:33] I wouldn’t call it living there. I’d call it a visit. And I was in Houston last week looking at stuff that was damaged in the last hurricane. Yeah I’ve worked all over the United States. I’ve done WPA murals in rural post offices in Pennsylvania and in Georgia worked on the art. The biggest amount of work that we’ve done is out of Texas. We’ve just done a ton of work in Texas. I love Texas and texmex and you know and all that kind of stuff. We’ve done great work. Yeah just like all over the place a lot of work in Utah done worked on murals in the Hawaiian Islands. Heck if you’ve got a mural in Dubai or Hong Kong. Let’s go.

[00:31:22] Let’s go. There you go. Any closing words for all the screwballs thinking Man I love that kind of life. I want to get out there and start my own business.

[00:31:32] Well there’s two components to it as we’ve already talked about. One is your passion and I tell you there’s nothing better than doing something that you love but that is not all you need just because you love to do something. If you haven’t got your head in the business side of life then it ain’t going to work. And like I said I believe that business is a team sport. But when it’s flowing well you get it. I count Tom as an important part of my business team and of my mastermind team. And I have other people that you know handle legal issues or accounting issues. And it’s a great way to go. I love the creative opportunities that are before me and if it’s going to be it’s up to me.

[00:32:21] All right. It’s been great. How should they reach you if they have questions.

[00:32:26] Yeah let me give you my phone number: 805-564-3438. And Gina will take good care of you and if I’m not sitting in my office she can put you through to my mobile number.

[00:32:50] Well thanks a lot. Thanks so much for taking the time out and this I’m really so proud of the things you’ve done. You da man!

[00:33:04] I hope we get a chance to connect and mix it up some more in the future. Always a great pleasure for me. Thanks.

[00:33:09] Sounds good. Everybody, this has been episode 24 of screw the commute podcast. Make sure you check out the show notes. Get over there get those things that Scott has for you at the Web site and give him a call if you have any interesting projects that you’d like him to be involved in. He’s a really really great guy. The only kind of people you’re going to hear on this show are good good solid people. He’s certainly at the top of the list. Of course he’s only on number 24. I couldn’t get a hold of you you’re working on a mural. So catch you on the next episode everybody. See ya later.

Tom Antion has helped thousands of people start, run and improve their own businesses. A Hollywood documentary is in production about Tom that celebrates entrepreneurs, called “The American Entrepreneur” you can watch the trailer at Facebookand keep in touch because you are invited to the big online premiere party coming soon.

 

 

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Renown Painting Restorer from Madrid, Spain Julia Betancor Collaborates In Our Lab

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

After a meeting at the national annual conference for the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) in Chicago and a visit in Madrid and Toledo, Spain, renown painting conservator Julia Betancor was invited to come to our lab in Santa Barbara, CA to collaborate on several projects. Of interest to her were our organization and services for responding to the disasters for the preservation, cleaning of art related items. She has been previously involved with such projects in Toledo and Madrid. Here is a quick video about one of her projects:

Ms. Betancor brought her experience to our facility to “talk shop” and assist us in an interesting mural project we are under contract for with a community in the LA Area.

Of particular interest are always the headaches of the clean up of artwork, and its restoration, after it previously underwent inept and “generous” restoration efforts in the past. For instance, the WPA mural panels were practically repainted 30 years earlier… which makes their professional and high quality restoration now MUCH more problematic. Resolving these types of problems in the best interest of the artwork and the client is a special problem solving exercise. On a more publicized note, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvador Mundi that recently sold for $480 million was exactly that type of restoration matter.

FACL’s disaster response team is headed by Mr. Andrew Jacobs and he is assisted by art conservators Scott M. Haskins, Oriana Montemurro and Virginia Panizzon. You may get ahold of any of them with questions at 805 564 3438 or faclartdoc@gmail.com

Here is a testimonial by Julia Betancor during her 2 month+ “working vacation” in our Santa Barbara location.

Here is our YouTube channel’s playlist of testimonials: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL41D80C1C65FF2CE7

Here is our mural capabilities statement: https://www.fineartconservationlab.com/mural/

Here are more short videos on the disaster response services offered for art related items: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Umg_5trfe8&list=PLLxFeD9MHd7Sr3TsXQnCla-XirSkZt46H

Posted in Disaster/Emergency Response, Murals, Professional activities | Tagged | 16 Comments

Fine Art Conservator, Scott M. Haskins, interviewed on Santa Barbara News Press Radio

Posted on August 5, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

Santa Barbara New Press Radio KZSB 1290 AM interviewed me this morning with veteran host and art appraiser Elizabeth Stewart on the “Art and Antiques Radio Program”

 Given the abundance of very destructive disasters in our area recently (two wildfires and the Montecito mudslide since last December) the focus of the program was preparing for disasters. Not a very sexy subject but it is compelling when you think about the items in a household that tell the family’s history and there are collectibles that could be worth more than the house.

Of course, none of the discussion was canned advice from a website. Personal stories were abundant, and it was a lively and fun interview, not drab or philosophical at all as you might expect with Elizabeth who is really fun in real life.

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories has a division of its services that focuses on disaster response. Since the Thomas fire last December, we have prepared about 60 insurance proposals for clients. Of course, each client has a property full of smoked or muddy items and in all, we estimate that we’re talking about the clean-up of about 7,000 – 8,000 art related objects. We’ve been working with Service Master and ServPro, mostly in the Santa Barbara area. We also work with Rainbow International.

The question always arises whether an item is “worth” the money and effort to bring it back into “pre-accident” or “pre-existing” condition. That question is more easily answered when it’s a collectible that you buy in a store, auction or gallery. But what about the items that can’t be scheduled on an insurance policy that tell the family’s story to later generations and the “things” remind us of those memories? In effect, the items we pass down contain our memories to retell the stories and pass on the heritage of our families.

There are ways to be prepared for a disaster with family treasured documents and heirlooms and we discussed and told stories about personal examples.

Elizabeth also interviewed Luke Swetland and Caroline Grange after my interview. He is the President and CEO of the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. He came to Santa Barbara after a long and distinguished career at the Japanese American National Museum (for whom we are the painting conservator), the Autry Museum (for who we have done painting conservation), the Getty Conservation Center (for whom we have done special projects and research for).

To hear the radio program, search for August 3 2018 on this webpage: click here

For more media information for Scott M. Haskins, Head of Conservation, at Fine Art Conservation Laboratories, click here

For art conservation/restoration questions call Scott M. Haskins, Oriana Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon Art Conservators 805 564 3438 faclartdoc@gmail.com

Facebook page: http://www.Facebook.com/bestartdoc

YouTube Channel” http://www.YouTube.com/bestartdoc

For a quick video tour of Fine Art Conservation Lab: http://www.FineArtConservationLab.com

Fine Art Conservation Laboratories provides professional art conservation services throughout the Santa Barbara-Ventura areas, Los Angeles area, Orange County and even into San Diego, Monterey-Carmel area, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City area. We provide pick up and delivery in these areas. FACL also provides mural conservation services nationwide and even internationally.

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Beautiful Underwater Mural Cleaned and Coated For Protection And Preservation

Posted on July 14, 2018 by Scott M. Haskins

Octopus and sharks in art… This is a mural that Fine Art Conservation Laboratoriescleaned and coated for protection for long term preservation in Santa Monica, California during the last couple of days. While this mural is not at risk for vandalism and graffiti, the varnishing will ensure much better long term condition

Questions? Call FACL, Inc. at 805 564 3438 faclartdoc@gmaail.com

Scott M. Haskins, Oriana Montemurro, Virginia Panizzon Art Conservators. Andrew Jacobs Disaster Response Coordinator.

The Australian, David Legaspi, was known in Malibu for his murals at schools in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.Legaspi was well-known in Malibu, Santa Monica and San Fernando Valley for his murals, most decorating school campuses.

David Legaspi, Mural Artist 1961 – 2012

Born in the Philippines, Legaspi was the oldest of five siblings. He received his B.S. Degree in Architecture from the University of St. Thomas, Philippines and then worked as an architect, visual designer, merchandiser, and publicity artist for the U.S. Army & Air Force Exchange Service at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines, and the Royal AirForce, Upper Heyford, England.

In 1993, he became a full-time freelance artist and muralist, first in Sydney, Australia and then in Los Angeles. He returned to architecture at the CBMG Management Group in Santa Monica from 1999 to 2002.

Legaspi considered painting murals with and for children, whom he called his “Little Artists,” his life’s calling.

Legaspi died in June 2012, from unexpected heart failure. Webster Elementary School’s principal, Phil Cott, said Legaspi’s death is a terrible loss to the Malibu and Santa Monica communities.

“Our whole campus is covered with beautiful murals that he did alone and large areas of murals that he did with every student at our school at that time and with parents,” Cott said. He said the artwork depicts aquatic life and enriches the elementary school environment.

Legaspi also donated one of his world-famous painted surfboards, which was auctioned off for thousands of dollars for Webster, according to Cott.

The artist’s work is not only at Webster Elementary. He also did murals at other schools in SMMUSD, the Los Angeles Unified School District, the cities of Malibu and Santa Monica, private and public schools in the valley, South Bay schools, nonprofits such as the State PTA, as well as private commissions.

“He chose themes that are appropriate in this community in this place where these kids are growing up,” Cott said.

Legaspi did not charge for his mural services at his public projects. He most often paid for mural materials as well. He used funds from his private commissions to pay for his public projects.

“David was the single most generous and prolific contributor to our school in my 20 years at Webster, and literally transformed our environment,” Cott said.

https://patch.com/california/malibu/webster-elementary-mourns-loss-of-artist-david-legaspi

https://www.facebook.com/david.legaspimemorial?ref=ts

https://patch.com/california/malibu/memorial-planned-for-muralist-david-legaspi

 

Varnishing an outdoor mural

for protection and preservation

Before we can discuss the types of protective varnish to use, you need to understand the premise for choice. In the professional mural conservation field, when asked how long should art last, we think in terms of “generations.” Murals are part of a community’s heritage, part of the architecture, part of a community’s vibe and culture. They are not just a decoration.

As professionals, we are bound by Standards of Practice and a Code of Ethics. These prevailing standards would theoretically imply:

  1. We do no harm to the original artwork… the materials we use should not cause harm to the original mural as they age or if they have to be removed
  2. This means, also, that anything we do to the mural should be reversible or safely removable in the future… even distant future.

Here lies the conundrum:Murals painted in acrylic paint remain very soluble-dissolvable (Keim and oil to a lesser degree but still…) forever. So, cleaning with anything except water is a problem. Of course, none of the stuff sprayed, spilled or deposited on murals is cleanable-removable in water. Solvents and citrus based strippers used to remove graffiti also attack-remove the original paint.

In other words, ANYTHING that is used to varnish the mural, will become part of the mural because it cannot be removed safely (for the artwork). So, let that idea percolate for a moment…if the varnish yellows, that will be the look of the mural in the future and there will be no way possible to remove the yellow. If the varnish cracks and peels (obviously unevenly) then you can’t remove it to redo it later. This photo show.

Despite this warning or inevitable negative situation, some entities have chosen a “permanent” protective varnish over a sacrificial layering of removable or “thinnable” varnish. I think their choice is based on ignorance based on the opinions of non-conservation-preservation services within their bureaucratic channels, not because there has been a logical choice .

The two schools of thought for the choice of protective layer or varnish are:

  1. The City of Los Angeles has adopted a policy, with the excuse of future minimal maintenance, to use a “permanent” hard coating. The name is “GCP 1000”

Polyurethane Topcoat. Here is the link for application instructions. I suppose that because this is a commercial product, that this appeals to bureaucrats. I’ve also been told that some graffiti can be removed from this protective layer with a commercial cleaner called Goo Gone (another long term preservation problem).

The Office of Cultural Affairs chose this material at the recommendation of their graffiti abatement contractor. The photo below shows a brown varnish under the graffiti. This was a permanent hard coating applied over a sacrificial varnish, that was not yellowed or brown.

A “sacrificial” varnish layer is one that is applied so thickly that when tagged, the graffiti can be removed along with a layer of varnish without having to remove all the varnish. This means that the cleaning-removal solutions don’t come into contact with the original paint. After the graffiti removal, the surface needs to be re-protected or in other words, the sacrificial varnish layers need to be reapplied.

The resin used for the sacrificial layers is not a commercially available product, but can be purchased from conservation suppliers. The resin used is Rohm and Haas’ Paraloid B72. We usually spray apply 4 heavy coats of 15% solids (in xylene solvent). Then we follow up with 4-5 coats of 30% applied with rollers as thickly as can be possible applied without creating drips. On the mural in the video below, the artist originally thought to apply the thicker sacrificial layer only up on the wall about 8’. But yielded to reason when I showed him the nefarious techniques some vandals use to spray way up high on walls. So, we applied all the layers over the entire mural.

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