Outdoor Department: Mildred Howard
Preservation Arts outdoor sculpture conservation team during treatment.
Our outdoor sculpture conservation team is on site every week to treat work for cities, museums, and private collections. We recently treated Mildred Howard’s work Promissory Notes, which belongs to San Francisco Arts Commission and is located in the entrance plaza of the Southeast Community Center. These enlarged bronze forms, inspired by African currency traditionally worn as jewelry, are oriented vertically and suggest the outline of a ship’s hull to reflect on Hunter’s Point historic shipbuilding industry, the movement of immigrants, and perseverance.
Mildred Howard is a living artist and Bay Area native, known for her sculptural installations and mixed media assemblage works. In fact, in 2011 the City of Berkeley declared March 29th to be Mildred Howard Day! Her work is focused on universal connections between people, memory, place, and the everyday. Howard received her MFA from JFK University and has received numerous awards, including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award, the Lee Krasner Award, Rockefeller Fellowship, and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.
The first step in treatment of Howard’s Promissory Notes was to thoroughly clean all the surfaces, treating areas of copper corrosion, as well as extensive bird droppings that were on the top of each of the three circular components. Next, our team integrated small areas of patina loss into the surrounding areas. Finally, each of the three vertical components were heated with a large propane torch to apply a clear microcrystalline blend wax with natural brushes, and finally buffed to protect the patinated surface.
Before and after treatment, overall.
Before and after treatment, detail.
