Artists who work in conservation and restoration develop proficiency in techniques and with materials that relate to other times and cultures.  How does this affect their own creative works? This paper extends an article written a decade ago: "Innovation from Tradition in the Book Arts" [by Richard Minsky. American Craft, October/November, 1993.

In addition to the artists described in the above illustrated article, we will look at works by artists in drawing, painting, photography and sculpture who work in diverse areas of conservation. The slides used for this lecture have been converted to digital format with the permission of the artists, and will be added to this web page as a gallery section early in 2004. There will also be an extended text, and statements by the artists about the relation of their conservation activity to their creative work.