What’s up at Wassenberg 3/2/11

Looking ahead to the watercolor exhibit

By Hope Wallace

The Wassenberg Art Center’s exhibit, “The Art of Fiber,” ended last Friday. As these story-backed quilts and rugs come down to make way for the traveling Ohio Watercolor Society (OWS) exhibit, we are reminded how family and memories can be wound intricately within and how that can complete the artwork itself. Art from the heart is often the most satisfying to undertake and the Art of Fiber is a prime example of love within art.

We thank 1st Federal Savings & Loan and Stephanie Dawn for their generous support of “The Art of Fiber.”

The Ohio Watercolor Society touring show opens March 6 and runs through March 27.  As always, admission is free.  Exhibit hours are 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays).  We are grateful to Central Mutual Insurance and Purmort Brothers Insurance Agency for their sponsorship of the OWS exhibit.

Looking forward with excitement to the arrival of fine watercolor works from all over the state of Ohio, I’m reminded of an Ohio born watercolorist, Charles Burchfield. I was fortunate to study Burchfield on an independent study trip during college and became further intrigued and inspired by his work. Living out of my packed Honda and armed with a picnic basket, cooler and cameras I traveled through northern Ohio and up through New York state visiting museums featuring American artists.

I was able to see many original works by a somewhat unknown Burchfield. I also learned one might want to ask permission prior to snapping photos willy-nilly of works of art! His unique approach and almost fantastic style exhibits a profound respect for nature and scenes of building and homes with occasional anthropomorphic twists. His depictions of American scenes were often rendered with vibrating, kinetic color and hauntingly familiar imagery. Charles Burchfield was born in Ashtabula Ohio and graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1916. He later moved to Buffalo, New York after becoming engaged in 1921. He enjoyed a long and prolific career, which included commercial design such as wallpaper patterns and textiles.

Burchfield stated, “As an artist, as being in a nondescript swamp, alone, up to my knees in mire painting the vital beauty I see there in my own way, not caring a damn about tradition or anyone’s opinion.”

This to me is what the self-expression of art is all about and I admire Burchfield’s direct approach. The largest collection of Burchfield’s work resides at the Burchfield Penney Art Center at the Buffalo State College in Buffalo New York. (If you ask nicely they do let you take photographs). The collections of the Burchfield Penney range in numbers up to 7500 pieces and include items from traditional works on paper to furniture and new media. I encourage anyone interested in bold visual statement and free thinking to further explore this enigmatic artist’s work.

The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 643 S. Washington Street, Van Wert, Ohio.  Contact us at 419.238.6837 or e-mail wassenberg@embarqmail.  Visit the website at www.vanwert.com for information about upcoming classes and exhibits.

The art of making an ancient Egyptian mummy

By Kay Sluterbeck

The tombs of the ancient Egyptians, and the mummies within, have captured the imagination of people around the world.  It appears that it was considered important that the body remain intact so the deceased could enter the next life, so ancient embalmers became expert at preservation.

The embalmers were called in as soon as death took place, and the deceased was taken to the “ibu” or “tent of purification.”  This was the beginning of a ritual that took about 70 days.  Strictly prescribed rituals accompanied every step of the process, to ensure that the deceased would be able to enter the afterlife properly.

The body was carefully washed and then taken to the “wabei,” or “place of embalming,” where the internal organs were removed.  In most cases, a long incision was made on the left side of the abdomen (with the exact line of the cut marked by a priest).  Another priest performed the operation with a flint knife.  As part of the ritual, this priest was then chased away with abuse and stone-throwing.

The lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver were removed and the organs were preserved and put into canopic jars — beautifully carved containers specially designed for the purpose.  The heart was seen as the seat of intelligence and was not removed from the body, and the kidneys were also left in place — apparently because they were not deemed important.  The brain was removed by punching a hole in the thin bone at the top of the nostrils, or through an incision at the nape of the neck.  A coating of resin was applied to the face.

The body cavity was packed with temporary stuffing, and the body was laid on a bed that sloped gently toward the foot, where a basin caught anything draining from the body.  The deceased was then covered with piles of a drying agent, usually natron (a mineral salt) and left to dry for about 40 days.  After this period he body was virtually beyond any further natural decay.

The body was removed from the natron, washed, and taken to another area where it was emptied and restuffed with materials which might include resin-soaked linen, natron, lichen, onions, mud, or sometimes sawdust mixed with other substances.  The deceased was rubbed with perfumes and oils (juniper oil, beeswax, spices, milk and wine).

Orifices, such as the nostrils, were plugged with wax or linen.  Sometimes pads were put under the eyes and in the cheeks to restore natural contours of the face.

Wrapping the body took a full 15 days, and was accompanied by prayers and ritual.  The linen bandages were either specially woven or made of ordinary household linen provided for the purpose and torn in strips.  The strips were sometimes left plain, and sometimes decorated with dyes or written spells.  The strips were often more than 16 yards long and between 2 1/2 to 8 inches wide.  One mummy had more than 1,010 square yards of linen in its wrappings.

The head was tied in place with a band to hold the jaw firm.  Then the toes and fingers (and genitals, in the case of a man) were wrapped individually with narrow strips.  The arms and legs were bandaged next, and then the torso.  Throughout the layers of wrappings, amulets and pieces of jewelry were placed and then covered with melted resins made from a variety of saps from coniferous trees as well as gum resins based on myrrh.  The resins penetrated right through to the body tissues, resulting in rock-hard flesh.  After drying and hardening, the resins and bandages became black and pitch-like.

After this initial wrapping, the arms and legs were held close to the body and the remains were bandaged from head to foot in many layers of linen to create the traditional mummy shape.    Pads of linen were inserted here and there to make the final shape satisfactory.  A mask was usually placed over the face and shoulders.  Ordinary people had masks made of painted cartonnage, a substance not unlike papier mache and royals had elaborate golden and enameled masks.  After the mask was in place, more resins and oils were poured over the mummy.  (It’s estimated that King Tutankhamen had about 4 gallons of fluid poured over his body.)

Finally, the mummy was placed inside a coffin.  It is believed that the relatives of the deceased were allowed to see the mummy in the coffin before the lid was closed, because floral garlands, bouquets, berries and petals have been found carefully placed on some mummies.  Often the first coffin was nested inside several other coffins.  Once the coffining process was completed, the mourners and priests went to a temporary structure outside the tomb where the last stages of the funeral ritual were carried out.