Each September, we welcome eight new colleagues to the Museum: our wonderful and oh-so-talented McDermott Interns. Three of them will be blogging here with us for the year, so we must do proper introductions. Here’s a little bit about each of these fresh new faces:
Liz visiting Venice over the summer
Liz Bola
McDermott Graduate Intern for Gallery and Community Teaching
Liz joins us from Massachusetts, where she recently earned her MA in Art History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Liz will be working with docents, K-12 tours, and our Go van Gogh program.
Which DMA artwork describes you best and why?
Edward Hopper, Lighthouse Hill, 1927
First of all, I studied American art in graduate school and I especially love Edward Hopper’s paintings. In addition, I grew up in Maine, about 20 minutes away from the lighthouse that Hopper depicts. This painting reminds me of visiting the Two Lights lighthouse and the nearby Lobster Shack with my family in the summer!
Jennifer minigolfing in Massachusetts over the summer
Jennifer Sheppard
McDermott Intern for Family and Access Teaching
Jennifer is a Dallas native who recently earned her BA in Studio Art with a Painting Concentration from the University of Rochester in New York. Jennifer will be assisting with our programs for early learners, families, and access audiences.
Which DMA artwork describes you best and why?
J. T. Grant, Looking North, Fort Worth 1999, 1999
I was born and raised in Dallas, so I have a special fondness for the big, blue Texas sky (and depictions of it) to the extent that the fall semester of my junior year in college I turned in exclusively sky-themed projects for all my drawing and painting assignments. Looking North even calls to mind how I left Texas for four years to attend the University of Rochester in upstate New York. I’m happy to be home again, though!
One extra fun little connection: this painting can be found in the Mayer Library. I volunteered at my neighborhood library throughout high school, so I share the feeling of being at home among books.
Eliel worked at a fishery in Norway over the summer
Eliel Jones
McDermott Intern for Visitor Engagement
Eliel joins us from the UK, where he completed his BA in Fine Art at the University of the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey. Eliel will be working in C3 and assisting with our community partnerships.
Which DMA artwork describes you best and why?
Nic Nicosia’s photograph titled Youth best encapsulates how I have been feeling for the past year. The scene depicts three youngsters having the time of their lives. Youth speaks of the beauty of being free, young and somehow unafraid, not necessarily because those things are tangible realities but more because they are concepts that go beyond truth and exist within the parameters of utopian experience and imagination.
I like to think that the characters are riding up a gallery of an art museum. I somehow always end up referencing the scene in Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962) where Jules, Jim and Catherine daringly run down a bridge, a scene that was later re-interpreted in The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertulocci, 2003) where the three main characters run up a gallery of the Louvre in Paris. Both the films and Nicosia’s photograph attempt to portray what it might mean to be young: a mixture of love, faith, passion and sometimes reckless attitude. If you add art to the picture you probably end up with me!
We’re so excited to work with our new colleagues this year. The next time you catch them on the blog or in person, be sure to say hello!
Sarah Coffey
Education Coordinator
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