About Boiled Bunnies

To Start - Who am I?
Hello! My name is Stephanie Krist. I graduated from Nazareth College of Rochester in December 2014 with a BS in studio art /ceramics and a BA in art history - plus a minor in business.

Outside of this blog, I am a ceramic artist working on developing my personal style in both hand-built sculptures and wheel-thrown vessels. Currently, I am most inspired by fantasy/mythology as well as medieval and renaissance aesthetics – likely due to my obsession with summertime renaissance festivals.

Why Art History?

I have always been an artist. I loved crafting and creating from an early age, but I did not know much about art. My grade school art classes taught about the principles and elements of art, threw in a lesson about Georgia O'Keeffe, and that was it. I remember watching the reality show, America’s Next Top Model, and empathizing with the models being berated for not knowing the names of designers or photographers. “How do you possibly think you could work in this field if you know nothing about it?” I felt the same way about my art. What kind of artist was I if I couldn’t even name a favorite artist?

Me with Chi Wara dance masks - one of 
my first research topics.
Fast forward a little and I am heading off to Nazareth College. Thanks to AP transfer credits, I was a year ahead of schedule for my required college classes. With the extra room in my course selection I enrolled in AHI272 Survey II in the spring of my freshman year, and it changed everything. I loved learning about art history - especially about iconography and the social historical context of an artwork. Suddenly, I knew things - and I was hooked. That summer I filed the papers to become a double major: studio art and art history. I graduated in December of 2014, still a semester ahead thanks to those AP credits.

I am fascinated with art history, and love to find connections across time and cultures. My 17th Century art history research paper compared Dutch genre paintings to The Bad Doctors by James Ensor to show the change in societal views on medical practices. In my Asian art history class I connected Indonesian shadow puppets to the development of animation and ultimately the work of Disney animators. This paper would go on to become my senior thesis, which I presented at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY in February 2015.

Me with Ishtar Gate lions - another research topic
Why This Blog?

The fact that I, as an art history student/enthusiast, can barely make it through an art history blog without snoozing off, is a bad sign. The fact that I, as a lifelong art student, was not exposed to art history until college, is a bad sign. I want to provide interesting, relatable, and memorable lessons in art history. My goal is to write samples (appetizers if you please) of art history in order to inspire further individual exploration in the field. This blog will be more than just a historical recap of art. It will put art history into a consumable context for today’s readers.

This blog will also provide an opportunity for me to continue my art historical writing. While I eventually want to pursue the PhD track, I am not sure when that will happen. By working on this blog, I can continue my research and writing practices. However, I will not approach this blog as a research paper directed at a scholarly audience. Instead, I will write with a casual tone and focus on concise writing (because between you and me, I never submitted a research paper inside of the page limit.)

And Finally - Why Boiled Bunnies?

Being sad that the Unicorn 
Tapestry room was under 
construction
On the first day of my first art history class, I learned about boiled bunnies. I learned that in Europe during the late 14th Century, boys as young as 8 were sent to live with artists to work and learn as apprentices. These novice boys were assigned the task of making gesso to whitewash and smooth the wood panels used for painting. And what is gesso? A mixture of limestone and rabbit skin – or as my professor called it – bunny glue.

“Boiled bunnies” is simply one of those lessons from art history that you never forget. The term was comically substituted for every reference to gesso, and you can bet it is engrained in the minds of every art history student at Nazareth. That is my goal with this blog – to write about art history in a fun and memorable way. I also realize that as an undergraduate alumna, I cannot claim the experience of a graduate or PhD student, and therefore, I am simply here to boil the bunnies.




If you have any questions about the blog, you may contact me at: boiledbunnies@gmail.com
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