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My research interests center on studies of the American
artist as traveler, a trope that provides a means of examining art created
in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries within a broad
international context. Although formalism is an important tool for any
art historian, I endeavor to combine visual, literary, and cultural analyses
to suggest new ways of understanding American art within a global context.
One example is my essay, "Henry Bacon’s Imaging of the Transatlantic
Crossing in Gilded Age America," that was published in the journal
of Nineteenth Century Studies. It examines shipboard genre scenes
that portray the ideological struggles surrounding the forging of America’s
cosmopolitan identity in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In
a forthcoming article for Prospects-A Journal of American Culture
titled "Inscriptions of Identity: May Alcott as Artist, Traveler,
Woman, and Myth," I interpret Alcott’s writings about her experiences
as an artist traveling abroad in relation to male-authored constructs
of women in the 19th century. In addition to focuses on women and less
familiar cosmopolitan artists, I am interested in broadening the scope
of the canon through studies of African-American art. My research into
case studies of African-American artists as travelers was the outcome
of writing biographical entries on Henry O. Tanner and Ellis Wilson for
the Mint Museum’s exhibition catalog, Vision and Celebration—The
Hewitt Collection of African-American Art.
I have presented papers at conferences and institutions around the country
including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. My research
on Thelma Johnson Streat, an African-American artist who studied in Oregon
in the early 20th century, will be presented at Colgate University as
part of a symposium, "Laying Claim: (Re)Considering Artists of African
Descent in the Americas." Another topic that delves into links between
African-American artists and the Haitian Renaissance is the subject of
a presentation I will be making in India early next year at a conference
on Multi-Ethnic Studies of the United States (MELUS).
It is my good fortune to have traveled extensively within the United States
and overseas. Countries I have visited include Guatemala, Canada, Mexico,
England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. The photo
on tthe previous page was taken during a four-month study abroad program
in Greece in the fall term of 2000. The wealth of fine art and archeological
history cradled within a relatively small country like Greece is amazing.
But, as a former fiber artist, I also take a personal interest in the
rich and diverse craft traditions still evident in many of the locales
I visit.
Travel expands our understanding of our society and ourselves. And, for
me, travel provides an opportunity to visit museums and archeological
sites around the world to see many of the works of art I lecture about
in the art history classes I teach here at Western Oregon University.
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