Why I changed a career in Conservation-Restoration to focus on Natural Health

The while that took me to come back, so many things changed. One of the main happenings is this one:

I am saying «see you later» to Restoration and Conservation to follow another path, again.

Even though the knowledge prevails I felt as if my path was bringing me in another direction. I believe that sometimes, even trying hard, your life never goes as planned. Or maybe there is something that feels off, i.e. a bit forced.

Whatever it is I asked the wise ones, and along with my intuition I thought: it’s time to leave it behind as an active part of you. In the meantime, active life stopped. So I took the chances to go on regular walks, watching clearly and in detail the plants around me: The shapes and colour they had, how quickly they changed within the season. 

How and idea became an inspiration looking at others ahead

Close people were planting herbs, flowers and plants in their garden. In my case, I took a step back: instead of killing more herbs from the supermarket, I prefered to focus on foraging wild plants.

I ended up doing Herbalism courses about local Irish plants and its benefits. I also moved into making more of my cosmetics at home to go natural and handcrafted.

My point here is that instead of banging my head against the wall I prefered to walk a new path, one that kept me interested and not anxious. In other circumstances I wouldn’t have minded the constant learning but I guess it didn’t click in that way.

I decided to recycle myself again

The reason I get from this is that this knowledge could help people now, instead of working with belongings. Health was more important for me than possessions, in these moments something secondary. I don’t mean bad to the professionals in this realm but as I said: for me something was off. My options weren’t the best and other paths became brighter. I wanted to discover my world through my surroundings, understanding the real reason I never left this country. Trying to get into the magic that makes so many people come back with no clear explanation.

What happens now?

I am working on many things but I am glad to say that magic comes in every day to who knows where to look for inspiration. And maybe that’s the reason I did not want to leave this country yet. 

The experience of beauty has for the most part a particular force. There are times when beauty is shy and hesitates until it can trust the worthiness of the beholder.

John O’Donohue: «Divine Beauty».

Details on my work at the moment

For the moment I focus on my Art in many ways. But I started my own company of handcrafted cosmetics, specially body soap. 

Although the details of that will be revealed in another post. <3

© María M. Mayorga

Works of Art: Aesthetic or Historical Value?

The afirmation that works of art mainly demand to be enjoyed aesthetically, might contradict our further use of it as a historical document of our past.

Works of art do offer us precious information. We can learn about the techniques, materials, style, culture and historical information – political, social and spiritual values among others -. But it is important to remember the need to stablish a certain priority regarding on the status on which we consider the object.

Repercussions of an Aesthetic Value

Giving importance to the aesthetic value would consequently have an effect on how it would be treated along time. Conservators, as the most important figures and responsabiles of heritage, might treat the work of art differently according to its value. If the item were to be treasured as the artist originally created it, experts should consider to respect the original as much as possible.

For example, given a piece of art with a percentage of losses up to 30%, it would be unrespectful to cover it in a way that imitates the artist’s job. Although with the trattegio technite for reintegration, the conservator would methodically cover both the visual illusion and an honest approach away from a copy. From a certain distance the eye would complete the lost message, revealed its different technique when seen closer.

If the piece had a higher percentage of losses, this technique still would respect the original. The added sections would moderate the dramatic view of the damage .

Repercussions of an Historical Value

«Battle of Trafalgar», Louis Philippe Crepin

On the other hand, if the same work of art were to be conservated as an item of historical value, the result might be completed faking the original. This approach of a permanent look-as-new should not be accepted.

At the end of the day, artists did not intend to create Art as an historical document but as a comission. If we take the case of the sketch «Study of Lion» by Rubens, the intention was to create notes as a mere analitical approach to a bigger piece of art.

Conclusion

To sum up, it is important to consider the values added by us, colored by our time. They are indeed an essencial award to Art, given the status that deserves in our time. Although in order to protect our heritage from the rages of time it’s needed to make sure that we value them in the correct order of priorities.

<Bibliografy: Introduction to The Eye's Caress: Looking, Appreciation, and Conoisseurship, from Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage. CGI.>

© María M. Mayorga