{"id":1887,"date":"2007-01-16T16:39:16","date_gmt":"2007-01-16T21:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=1887"},"modified":"2014-12-16T16:39:48","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T21:39:48","slug":"conserving-art-one-nano-inch-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/01\/conserving-art-one-nano-inch-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Conserving Art, One Nano-Inch at a Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brigid<\/a>
A painstaking process: Brigid O\u2019Brien at work in Boston\u2019s Trinity Church.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For nine months in 2004 and 2005, Brigid O\u2019Brien began each day by climbing 100 feet of stairs and scaffolding. The essential tools of her trade were a handful of Q-tips, various bottles of cleaning agents, and her own spit.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t sound like typical work for an engineer, but then, O\u2019Brien isn\u2019t your typical engineer. Currently a graduate student in the Whiting School\u2019s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, O\u2019Brien took a year off from her graduate work to pursue what she describes as, \u201ca once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u201d It came in the form of a job offer to help clean and conserve the 130-year-old La Farge murals in Boston\u2019s Trinity Church.<\/p>\n

Originally painted in a little more than four months, the murals span two interior tiers of the church\u2019s central tower. The immense biblical figures, bold red background, and shimmering bands of gilt text include a variety of encaustic, oil, and distemper paints. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the reasons chemistry is so important in conservation,\u201d O\u2019Brien comments. \u201cSuch mixed media is difficult to clean.\u201d<\/p>\n

And because of that the work was slowgoing. She tested small patches as she went, constantly adjusting the Ph of her various cleaning agents. Then, after dipping her Q-tips in various neutral solutions and chelating agents, O\u2019Brien gently rolled over the surface of paint, inch by inch, to lift off layers of soot and dirt. A day\u2019s work usually concluded with a few feet of partially cleaned mural and a coffee can full of dirty Q-tips.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cleaned one 13-by-5-foot mural purely by spit. I was there for hours, days, weeks!\u201d she says, explaining that, unlikely as it may seem, human spit contains enzymes and compounds that effectively break down dirt on paint that is extremely soluble.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt conservation is a nice bridge between my two passions: science and art,\u201d says O\u2019Brien, who earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry, with a concentration in art history, from the University of Massachusetts. She later interned at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., compiling databases of artists\u2019 materials found within the museum. Currently, she volunteers at the Baltimore Museum of Art, analyzing and cataloging donated art.<\/p>\n

In her current graduate work at the Whiting School, O\u2019Brien is using self-assembled monolayers that she stamps onto the surfaces of metals such as gold and silver\u2014a technique she\u2019s combining with electrodeposition processes to fabricate nanostructures. Through this combination of engineering and science, O\u2019Brien is aiming to better understand surface science and electrochemistry\u2014knowledge that can be applied to all aspects of art conservation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For nine months in 2004 and 2005, Brigid O\u2019Brien began each day by climbing 100 feet of stairs and scaffolding. The essential tools of her trade were a handful of Q-tips, various bottles of cleaning agents, and her own spit. It doesn\u2019t sound like typical work for an engineer, but then, O\u2019Brien isn\u2019t your typical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-development","issue-winter-2007"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nConserving Art, One Nano-Inch at a Time - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2007\/01\/conserving-art-one-nano-inch-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conserving Art, One Nano-Inch at a Time - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For nine months in 2004 and 2005, Brigid O\u2019Brien began each day by climbing 100 feet of stairs and scaffolding. 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