This profile originally appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Bowdoin magazine.

Bowdoin major: Art History

Hometown: Denver, Colorado

Title: Wall Paintings Conservator and Senior Project Specialist, Getty Conservation Institute

Greatest influence: My high school art history teacher and Larry Lutchmansingh, my art history professor at Bowdoin, who taught an excellent introduction to art history course, and an even better 20th century class.

Most rewarding part of my job: Working with a team and seeing a conservation project from beginning to end. Typically, when I first look at a wall painting [or] mural, it is damaged, dirty, and worn. Through the process of examination, diagnostic investigation, and conservation treatment, the work is usually transformed, without a trace of the conservator’s hand.

Favorite place I’ve been: There are so many! Moscow in 2007, Timbuktu, southern Morocco, Tahiti, Rome…the list goes on.

Daily required reading: The Art Journal.

Favorite artist: Another long list: Andy Goldsworthy, ancient Roman painters from the region around Pompeii, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andrea Pozzo, Pipilotti Rist, Rockwell Kent.

When I tell people what I do, the most common reaction is: “Cool.”

Biggest professional accomplishment: Co-leading the project for the conservation of the bas-reliefs from the Royal Palaces in Abomey in Benin, West Africa.

Best movie I’ve seen this year: Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog.