One of my Playdoh portraits before and after. Hopefully after some “surface work” it will soon look more like it did before.Over a year ago, when we left NJ, we had a moving company pack up our house. For the most part it all went well, except for the packing of my art. The surface of my work is very delicate, and must be wrapped in fabric and not paper. Especially when moving all the way around the world, and therefore will be wrapped for a long time. And on top of that, moving to Guam would mean a dramatic change in temperature as well, which could also be an issue. So, I specifically instructed the movers to please use the provided fabric to cover the art, they all said “all right”, and I thought all was golden. Wrong! When we then in August unpacked all our house goods here on Guam, I realize that 98% of the work was wrapped in paper. I was so angry, frustrated, and really didn’t know if I would be able to save my work. It was mostly my portraits of our Boston Terrier Playdoh that were damaged. We then filed for the damages - and as you can imagine, working with the company, filling in forms, them getting back with us, them needing more proof, back and forth... It took most of a year, but it is now sorted and we accepted their offer. So, this week I have spent getting my old paintings back to normal. Something I have been both excited about and dreaded at the same time.
The surface of all my work is a layer of a varnish-like glue, and if not careful - and with the change in temperature - paper will stick to it. All the paintings had been covered in this thin mover’s paper, and I have tried to take it off, to the best of my abilities. I have spent a whole day going through each piece with a rag and very hot water to dissolve all the traces of paper. Some pieces, turned out not too bad, but others were severely destroyed deeply into the surface layer.
I am a little nervous to get started, but also excited; FINALLY I get to get the work back to normal. It has been frustrating to look at the destroyed pieces for so long, but we needed the settlement from the moving company before I could begin. I cross my fingers, and I will make an update about the final result...
