STORIES

Calendar

Achievements

Briefly Noted

Provost's Corner

Credits

Archives

Quiet Treasures of the Turner Museum

After almost 20 years of working intimately with the Janet Turner collection -- handling, cataloguing, and installing prints -- Sue Richardson has a keen appreciation for the thousands of fine art prints in the collection. Richardson retired in June and had the honor of choosing prints for Reflections: 20 Years of Favorites, displayed in the Janet Turner Print Museum now through Dec. 18.

"One of the reasons I was so happy to choose for this show is that there are so many beautiful prints that illustrate many different facets of printmaking that most people never see," Richardson said. She began working in the museum as an intern and received a B.A. in art, with an emphasis in printmaking, in 1987.

"What I so admired about Sue was her mentoring of students," said Catherine Sullivan, curator of the Janet Turner Print Museum. "She never missed an opportunity to share her knowledge as printmaker with both our student staff and our viewers. I also miss the warm humanity Sue brought to our working environment."

A print that is not in the show but best highlights the spontaneity that she loves in the process of creating is the strange Leper Series/Leper Conversing, an etching/aquatint by Damian Bennet. Richardson believes that what looks like foam coming out of the man's mouth in the print was actually a "mistake" by the artist that metamorphosed his original vision."When you are doing art, anything can happen," Richardson said.

Richardson has found that she misses "being someplace where I was always amongst beauty." Richardson, obviously fond of the museum, calls it "Chico's best-kept secret... a real jewel."

See exhibitions for museum hours.

Lisa Kirk