2024 Smith Campus Center Staff Art Show Staff Spotlight
Video by Nick Brown, Digital Communications Specialist, Harvard Human Resources.
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The Harvard Crest appears. Text, Staff Art Show. Photos show visual art displays that include paintings, photographs, textiles.
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MIGUEL ESCUER: My name is Miguel Escuer. We are at Harvard’s Staff Art Show. I work as a project manager in Harvard real estate, and I’m also an artist.
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Miguel stands next to a seascape and a painting of a parrot.
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These two pieces that I brought in for the art show are both focused on my home country, which is Venezuela. In Venezuela, you can see a lot of scarlet macaws, or guacamayas, flying around the city.
And also, I wanted to experiment with oil painting and take a look at the beautiful nature in Venezuela. So I took a stab at some of the techniques that someone like Van Gogh employs in his artwork and focusing on the natural resources that Venezuela has to offer, such as beaches.
KAREN WALTER: I’m Karen Walter, and I work at Weissman Preservation Center, which is part of the Harvard library system. And actually, that’s where I first started working with Japanese paper, which is what you see here.
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She stands next to a monochromatic abstract piece that resembles watercolor.
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And I do these pieces outside, with these giant Asian-style brushes.
So it’s Sumi ink on Japanese paper. Along the way, I make a lot of duds, believe it or not. And so I go back to my studio, and I take those pieces and put more ink on them and fold them and turn them into a different piece of work. I recycle my own drawings, basically, my failures into successes.
TANNAZ MONFARED: My name is Tannaz Monfared. I’m a Senior Project Manager with Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I presented two of my watercolor works.
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A framed watercolor shows a church and trees.
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Painting is all about light and shadows, and there are a lot of beautiful, long shadows that give the vibe of sunset in the countryside and the silence. And the other one is Newbury Street, my absolutely favorite location in the city. All the dynamic life of people sitting outside, having a good time, walking around. Thank you.
PATRICIA MORFIN: Hi, everybody. My name is Patty Morfin, or Patricia Morfin. I work at the LGC, at the ninth floor, at the Smith Center. I’m a legal assistant there.
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Patty shows a painting of a young woman dancing in the clouds with a bright sofa and window behind her.
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Well, this is the painting that I submitted for the staff show, representing giving order to those girls, young people, who, especially females, who like to dream. So I was one of those girls who dreamt, in my hometown, many years ago, and I feel like we all go through the same thing. That’s how I get inspired by painting these. The School of Music, everybody’s super nice, and thank you so much for being part of this and coming to see all our work.
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