- To research chairs, I would usually go through the Lafayette College library “OneSearch”, specifically Artstor, to find information about any articles, paintings, drawings, or artifacts pertaining to chairs that I could get access to.
- To narrow it down, I would choose either a certain medium or artist so that the number of results decreases. For example, a search like “clay sculpture chair” is more specific than “chair” but will still yield lots of results. That way, the resources that are coming up are still relevant but also reliable rather than searching for “chair art” google images.
- The available resources are the online search tool through the library website, such as Jstor, Artstor, and others. In addition, there is information about the Williams Center galleries, the Grossman galleries, the Lass galleries, the special collections in the library.
- Type in “chair” as the keyword in Artstor or another source through the library website.
- The images could be distorted from the original or manipulated in some way, such as cropping, zooming, and others.
- We look into other works of art during a similar time period and/or different works by the same artist and see what similar characteristics they share, which shows us that research must have gone into the work in order for these techniques to shine through in multiple works.
This is great, Maggie. How did your research inform your your chairs?