{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/h12v40n00h/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Elizabeth Albert Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1:\u003c/strong\u003e Elizabeth Albert describes her recent focus on creating painting-based collages.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Image of a mixed-media painting created by Elizabeth Albert in 2022 titled \"Forest Scene with Rabbit\" - based on an 18th century bronze zodiac figure, China - (20\" x 15\"; oil, sewing on printed canvas). Courtesy of Elizabeth Albert.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eElizabeth Albert is a visual artist, writer, and curator. She is also an associate professor at St. John's University, where she teaches in the Department of Core Studies and the Department of Art and Design. Among the courses she teaches are Art \u0026amp; Architecture in New York City and Art \u0026amp; Environment: Coastal New York. Albert speaks with interviewer Ben Turner about her experience growing up in New York, Virginia, and England. Albert describes her exposure to art and architecture while living in England, her growing interest in becoming an artist when she was a teenager, and her formal training in observation-based artwork at Boston University, where she majored in painting and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1985.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAfter college, Albert taught in New York City public schools for one year, moved to Belgium, and ultimately returned to New York. Albert recalls the joyful time she had in the early 1990s attending graduate school at Queens College, where she was exposed to contemporary art, use of different types of materials, and different forms of expression. Albert explains that years later while working as a professor at St. John's University, she developed an interest in exploring neglected and lesser-known coastal areas of New York City. She describes how her ensuing historical research on the topic led to her curating a mixed-discipline exhibition at St. John's University (2013) and later authoring and editing the book Silent Beaches, Untold Stories: New York City's Forgotten Waterfront (2016), which combines history, photography, contemporary art, and short stories. Additionally, Albert discusses her work volunteering with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and the children's book about the Gowanus Canal that she is in the process of writing and illustrating.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eTo learn more about Elizabeth Albert's artwork, visit \u003ca href=\"https://elizabetalbert.wixsite.com/studio\"\u003ehttps://elizabetalbert.wixsite.com/studio\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e (supplement)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/45788"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2025-05-01 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Elizabeth Albert (Interviewee)","Ben Turner (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["1960s-2025 (temporal)","Queens, NY; Gowanus Canal, NY; New York, NY; New Rochelle, NY; England; Brussels, Belgium (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eClip 1:\u003c/strong\u003e Elizabeth Albert describes her recent focus on creating painting-based collages.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003ePhoto: Image of a mixed-media painting created by Elizabeth Albert in 2022 titled \"Forest Scene with Rabbit\" - based on an 18th century bronze zodiac figure, China - (20\" x 15\"; oil, sewing on printed canvas). Courtesy of Elizabeth Albert.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eElizabeth Albert is a visual artist, writer, and curator. She is also an associate professor at St. John's University, where she teaches in the Department of Core Studies and the Department of Art and Design. Among the courses she teaches are Art \u0026amp; Architecture in New York City and Art \u0026amp; Environment: Coastal New York. Albert speaks with interviewer Ben Turner about her experience growing up in New York, Virginia, and England. Albert describes her exposure to art and architecture while living in England, her growing interest in becoming an artist when she was a teenager, and her formal training in observation-based artwork at Boston University, where she majored in painting and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1985.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eAfter college, Albert taught in New York City public schools for one year, moved to Belgium, and ultimately returned to New York. Albert recalls the joyful time she had in the early 1990s attending graduate school at Queens College, where she was exposed to contemporary art, use of different types of materials, and different forms of expression. Albert explains that years later while working as a professor at St. John's University, she developed an interest in exploring neglected and lesser-known coastal areas of New York City. She describes how her ensuing historical research on the topic led to her curating a mixed-discipline exhibition at St. John's University (2013) and later authoring and editing the book Silent Beaches, Untold Stories: New York City's Forgotten Waterfront (2016), which combines history, photography, contemporary art, and short stories. Additionally, Albert discusses her work volunteering with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and the children's book about the Gowanus Canal that she is in the process of writing and illustrating.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eTo learn more about Elizabeth Albert's artwork, visit \u003ca href=\"https://elizabetalbert.wixsite.com/studio\"\u003ehttps://elizabetalbert.wixsite.com/studio\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/293/936/small/albert_elizabeth_20250501_image3_resized.jpg?1759497929","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293936","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - albert_elizabeth_20250501_clip1.mp3"]},"duration":126.11918,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/293/936/small/albert_elizabeth_20250501_image3_resized.jpg?1759497929","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293936/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293936/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/293/936/original/albert_elizabeth_20250501_clip1.mp3?1759497894","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":126.11918,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293936","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - albert_elizabeth_20250501_full.mp3"]},"duration":3186.02449,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/293/671/small/albert_elizabeth_20250501_portrait_resized.jpg?1759497880","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/293/671/original/albert_elizabeth_20250501_full.mp3?1759351208","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":3186.02449,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e This is Ben Turner interviewing Elizabeth Albert for the Queens Memory Project. The date is May 1st, 2025, and we are on the Queens campus of St. John's University. Thank you for coming in today, Elizabeth.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1.0,13.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Thank you for having me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=13.0,14.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Professor Albert, what can you tell me about yourself? First of all, where were you born and where did you grow up?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=14.0,23.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay, so I was born in New Rochelle, New York, and I grew up there, which is the suburbs of New York. And then when I was seven, we moved to England to a tiny village outside London in Surrey County. My father was on sabbatical, and then a few years later when I was 13, we moved to Virginia because my father went to work for the brand new EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] at the time. And then, we came back to New York. And after high school, I moved to Boston and after Boston I moved back to New York. And then lived for a couple of years in Belgium and a couple of years in Mexico and then back here to New York. So, that's the locations.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=23.0,78.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e What can you tell me about your family? You mentioned your dad worked for the EPA.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=78.0,81.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. So, my mother was an educator and she taught English in the South Bronx in the 1970s and was a very dedicated person in a very difficult situation. New York City was broke and the South Bronx was not the way it is now, dangerous place. She really loved her students and was very dedicated, even though she was just a tiny little person, four foot 10, and the students were very—13 year olds are big. And so that was what she did. And then my dad was, he has an MD [Doctor of Medicine] but did not want to go into practice. So, instead went into research and worked in—he was on the Atomic Energy Project early on and then got very interested in cancer research and carcinogen assessment and spent most of his career at NYU [New York University] except for the brief time that we were in Virginia. He was in Washington, but he did continue to testify before Congress on various issues having to do with health in the workplace.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=81.0,169.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay, interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=169.0,170.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Love Canal was one of the high-profile things. Oh, interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=170.0,173.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, interesting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=173.0,173.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, interesting. He stayed involved in that and then they moved to Ohio where he [became the head] of the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Cincinnati.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=173.0,186.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. And do you have any brothers or sisters?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=186.0,189.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, I have three siblings, two sisters and a brother. They are considerably older than I am. My two sisters are 10 and 12 years older, and my brother's 14 years older. My brother is an immunologist rheumatologist at Dartmouth. He runs a clinic for children. And my middle sister is—she struggles. She has an Art Degree from NYU, and my sister that's closest to me in age was a dancer and [is] retired now and also taught briefly here at St. John's University. Great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=189.0,235.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=235.0,235.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=235.0,237.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e So, you had mentioned before that you lived in England for a time, and I know we talked about this, that you mentioned that visiting cathedrals, I believe was one of the things that sparked your interest in art. Can you elaborate on that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=237.0,257.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. My parents were cultural enthusiasts. They were enthusiasts about many things. And when we lived in England, every weekend we drove around and saw different museums and cathedrals. And I really fell, I didn't realize it, but I really fell in love with art at that age when I was seven. And I couldn't—my eyes just could not see enough of it. It was just I would devour things and they tended because it was museums, older museums and manors and cathedrals. Most of the subject matter had to do with Christianity. That was my first real introduction to art.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=257.0,308.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e What era were these cathedrals?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=308.0,311.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e They were mostly Gothic. So, English Gothic is its own thing. So, anywhere from 12th century to 15th century, mostly gothic and renaissance.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=311.0,327.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Back when the church was one of the big patrons of the arts. Right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=327.0,331.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Totally, yes. Even bigger than the courts. Yeah. And I've just always loved, I've always been drawn to Christian art and churches my whole life. Even though my parents are not religious and I wasn't raised religiously. It's just [that] for me, it does feel like a spiritual experience even without any kind of liturgy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=331.0,359.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And did you start drawing as a result of that? How did your interest in art develop?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=359.0,366.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, I think I always drew but I didn't think of it as a calling or a vocation or anything like that until much later, I think until I went to a summer program for art and music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=366.0,380.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And I went there actually as a pianist because my father was a big musician and I played piano all my life, but I really fell in love [with art]. This was when I was 15. Really all I wanted to do was be in the studio there rather than practice a piano. So, that's when I really started drawing in earnest. But my parents did not encourage me because they were being second generation New Yorkers were all about [having a] profession. Not that you can't be a professional artist, but they had in their mind that I would be a doctor or a lawyer. And that was sort of—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=380.0,424.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e There had to be kind of a more practical payoff?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=424.0,426.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Much more practical. And art was something that you love and that enriches you, but a hobby, not something to pursue. So, I tried not to pursue it. I really did. I tried to major in other things. And then after one year in college, I knew I needed to go to art school. So, I ended up in Boston, at Boston University College for the Arts, which was at the time a very academic approach to art making, really observation based, anatomy, everything, very skill-based, not conceptual, not experimental at all.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=426.0,469.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, that felt a little bit constraining at the time but now I'm glad for it because it's not the kind of discipline you really will put yourself through. It's not really that creative or fun but it [frees you] to be creative and fun. So, I actually teach similarly now, [but more broadly], more open to art from other cultures and experiment with materials. But I still teach students observation based work for the most part.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=469.0,503.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And by \"observation based,\" you mean drawing what you see? Is that correct?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=503.0,507.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, exactly. So, drawing—trying to replicate in two dimensions what you're seeing in three dimensions. So, using various traditional techniques and experimenting, too. But just to build that skill base while they are in school and have the benefit of someone pushing them to do so.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=507.0,533.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. Okay, so you mentioned, you talked about—I understand that you attended Boston University for your undergraduate years? Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=533.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=540.0,540.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And after that you worked in or traveled in Belgium and Mexico?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=540.0,547.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So yeah, I graduated from Boston University School for the Arts with a BFA [Bachelor of Fine Arts] in painting. And then I taught for a year in New York City Public Schools. There was a teacher shortage and they were granting temporary per diem licenses to people with BA's and I went for it. And it was, I mean, I've had so many hard jobs in terms of waitressing and bartending and cater waitering, but that was the hardest one.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=547.0,580.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e I was teaching kindergarten through third grade, and I did not have a classroom. And I was traveling around with a cart from room to room and I saw 600 kids a week. And by the end of that year, [as] I was not intending to be an early childhood educator anyway. So, they were very cute kids but it was crazy. And at the end of that year, I not only did I leave teaching, I left the country and I moved to Belgium [laughs]. A friend of mine had come from there and told me—I was really wanted to go to France—but she said, \"Stop in Brussels. It's such a beautiful, smaller city and maybe better opportunities for jobs.\" And I ended up staying in Brussels. I bartended and I waitressed and I did some portrait commissions while I was there. And that was a wonderful experience. And then—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=580.0,647.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Whose portraits did you do?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=647.0,649.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e There're people that I had met while waitressing. I waitressed at a place that all these bankers went to lunch every day. And I got a couple of commissions from them, amazingly enough, sometimes of the wife, sometimes of the kids. So, that was me keeping my hand in. And then after a couple of years, it was time to—I had renewed my tourist visa and tried getting a working visa. And they would reject it and I would apply again and they reject it with good reason. And I met my future partner there and he was half Peruvian and half Mexican. And so, we ended up—in order to get him to the United States, we had to be in Mexico.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=649.0,709.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And that's a long Kafka-esque story. I'll just say that eventually we did get to the United States and I had a corporate job at the time and I was really missing being an artist and being surrounded by artists. And I had not gotten my graduate degree yet, and I wanted to teach college. And so, I applied to Queens College. I knew that there was a big affinity between Boston University School for the Arts and Queens College professors and academic approach to art making. And it was affordable and I knew that it had this great reputation. And so, I ended up being accepted and went there. I was so happy to be there and so incredibly happy to be back in school but specifically there because I was able to keep my job and commute there and not get into debt. And the faculty was extraordinary.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=709.0,779.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e It's a CUNY school, so of course it's going to attract some of the best and brightest. And I was there at a time where there were two very different types of faculty. There were sort of these old guard academic guys that were more like Boston University, and then the whole set of much different, younger, more politically oriented and less traditional materials-oriented faculty that were also fantastic. And I just loved them all. And after six years of not being in school, I was so thirsty for it, and it was a fantastic experience. And the second year that I was there, they opened their beautiful new arts facility and I had an exquisite studio. It was a super important experience, and it is probably the reason that I ended up at St. John's.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=779.0,842.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e How so?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=842.0,844.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, I was aware of St. John's being nearby, and I mean they're really almost down the street from each other. And I don't know, I think I wanted to stay in New York and I blanketed the area, including St. John's. And once I got a call from the Art Department at St. John's, I was like, \"Oh well, I know where that is.\" And it's just, I don't know. It all synced up very, very nicely. So, that is a very [formative period] in my life.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=844.0,889.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Did you have any particular faculty members at Queens College who had a big impact on you? I don't want to ask you to choose favorites here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=889.0,900.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e No, no. In fact, I really liked them all because partly because I was just so glad to be back in school. But in particular, yeah, there were. I TA'ed [Teacher Assistant] for Jenny Snider, a wonderful artist. I took classes with Maureen Connor, also an amazing mixed media artist. And I also TA'ed for Chuck O'Connor, terrific painter. And Arthur Cohen was one of my favorite teachers, who's also a tremendous painter and others. But those are the ones that stick out in my memory. And I also met wonderful peers, so we really had a great group, and it was just a very inspiring time in my life.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=900.0,959.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e How do you think it changed you as an artist those years at Queens College? Huge.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=959.0,965.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Huge.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=965.0,965.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Huge. Or is that too broad a question?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=965.0,968.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e No, no. It really, compared to my undergrad, which was very, very traditional 19th century Eurocentric discipline, which was I'm very happy for in the long run, did not feel particularly creative or expansive. It was very narrow. And when I got to Queens College, like I said, there were these two very different kind of groups of professors, and I just was really exposed to Contemporary Art in a way that I hadn't been before, and to different types of materials, different ways of expression. I was making work that was not painting. It was painting, including painting, but I was making large sculptures that hung from the ceiling and installation work and stuff that I had never had the opportunity to explore before. And then, I was living in Greenpoint, and before it got so fancy, like it is now, it was a very affordable place. And we were always at openings in the city, and it reopened my world, which had been sort of closing down a little bit in terms of art making and [the] art world.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=968.0,1055.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e When you were working in the corporate sector, you mean?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1055.0,1058.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. And even being abroad, which was incredibly wonderful, both Belgium and Mexico were amazing formative experiences. But I was not immersed in making and thinking about art and then being in the corporate world even less [so]. So, it was so joyful, a really joyful time. And it just returned me to my path.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1058.0,1088.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Back when artists could still afford to live in the city, right?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1088.0,1092.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Aye yi yi! I am telling you it was barely so even then.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1092.0,1098.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Around when was this?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1098.0,1099.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e This was early nineties. But it was much more so—I mean places like Greenpoint and Williamsburg, artists friends of mine were able to rent whole floors of old factories that were raw. They were really raw. It was not easy to do. You'd have to bring in electricity and heat and they would divide them up and sublet to other artists for cheap. I mean it was a much different kind of a community there. It was nothing like it is now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1099.0,1131.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e I think there were a lot of Polish people, lovely, which I think are still in Greenpoint. There's still a strong Polish population, but Polish restaurants, I think there was one little Thai restaurant and maybe a couple of pizza slice places. But now it's like restaurant city and all this enormous building projects very expensive. So, none of that was there. You could walk right to the river and on these empty piers and hang out. I felt very, very lucky that I was at graduate school and living there at that time. It was a really a special moment that things with New York, they just they changed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1131.0,1183.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e You do a lot of collage work? Is that—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1183.0,1186.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. My work has changed very frequently over my many, I guess it's 40 years or so of being an artist outside of school. And it—in the last number of years has always been somehow connected to the earth in the sense of landscape or well, flora and fauna. But more recently I began to be interested in painting-based collage work because I really was trying to express what it feels like to move through the world and that it wasn't about necessarily seeing something captured in time, realistically, but more interior, exterior, switching off interior thinking to exterior observation and a combining of the two.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1186.0,1252.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And also the referencing of so many art historical styles and different works from different periods in different parts of the world. And so, as a kind of homage, I started to print either my own work that was photographed or work from art history onto fabric. And then sew it to the surface of the painting, and then sometimes paint back into it. I thought of it as kind of almost like a call in response, and that seemed to me to express what I was trying to go for better than straight painting or straight collage. So, it's really a mix. That's what I've been doing the last few years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1252.0,1307.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e That's great. And do you have any particular artists that inspired you to move in that direction? Or was it something that was more, that just happened more spontaneously?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1307.0,1320.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Great question. I always admired the Dada collages like Hannah Höch’s. She cut up books from art history and books and images from commercial art, et cetera, and put them together. I always really admired her work, but I also have been influenced by so many different artists from different time periods and countries and different parts of the globe.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1320.0,1360.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e But I'm thinking of some major influences and I hate to do this, 'cause then it gets exclusionary but Giorgio Morandi from the 1950s in Bologna, who is a very quiet, subtle, still life painter. And his work has this vibration to it and dignity. It’s very modest and I love that. And then I also have admired Philip Guston's work, who is a painter's painter, and ended up doing some very clunky, awkward kind of blood and guts palette work that was just the opposite of Morandi, very bold and cartoony and kind of brutal. So, I suppose I exist somewhere in between the two of those.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1360.0,1418.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay, great. Well, I'm going to make sure that we also show some of your art in connection with this interview.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1418.0,1425.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Awesome.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1425.0,1426.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e That'll be great. So, people listening to this interview will have a chance to actually see it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1426.0,1432.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. I also lately have fallen in love with this style that I used to despise and that is the Rococo, which I always thought it was just so pink and fluffy. But I actually love the pink and fluffiness of it now, the tumbling cherubs out of the heavens. It's wonderful.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1432.0,1456.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e You also mentioned that—I know we talked about this that, and you mentioned it just now, that your father worked for the EPA and that theme is apparent in some of your work, the earth and the planet and environmental issues. Can you elaborate on that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1456.0,1478.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Sure. Yeah. This has always been of an interest, but not in any kind of a formal sense. But one of the main courses that I teach is a first year seminar course that is based around New York City, Art and Architecture in New York City. And I started to do some exploration realizing that as even a second-generation New Yorker, I don't know this city as well as I thought. And I started to get interested in coastal areas. And just for my own curiosity, mostly I started to drive and walk these liminal spaces, and many of them are really neglected and unknown.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1478.0,1537.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And this interest dovetailed with an introduction to a group of writers who were also interested in the waterfront. And at the same time, I was trying to prepare for tenure, and I thought it would be wonderful to pitch an idea about these lesser-known places to the [St. John’s University’s Yeh Gallery]. I got a lot of support for that idea, and I began to do the research in earnest for it. And so I took on my first curatorial role, and I included contemporary art—artists that were working with aspects of the waterfront, and archival photography that I found in the great archives in New York City, New York Public Library, the Museum of the City of New York, the Department of Records, et cetera, and dug into the research. It was a mixed discipline exhibition. It had a lot of wall text and a lot of photography and contemporary art. And it ended up coming out quite well. And the university, since it was mixed discipline, a lot of different facets of the university came by and were interested. And that was just wonderful to have that kind of broad audience. And one of the people was the head of the Graduate Department English, Dr. Steve Metz, and he asked if he could have a conference round table in the gallery space and a reading from some of the wall text. So, that introduced me to a whole different group of people who were grounded in environmental studies, whether they were writers or visual artists or performance artists or historians.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1537.0,1683.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Is that what you call the environmental humanities or—?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1683.0,1685.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. He calls it the blue humanities.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1685.0,1688.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh right.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1688.0,1689.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e But I think environmental humanities is, yeah, it goes by a few different terms. And so, that changed the direction of my research a little bit, and I started to attend conferences around that in addition to my visual art practice.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1689.0,1707.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, that was an amazing experience, and I got a lot of support from the university in the form of funding and promotion. I had a lot of guest speakers and events that were tied to the exhibition that went really well. And I got tenure, and then it had been so much work that I put it away, but someone suggested that I consider reworking it into a book. And I pitched it around, and I was very fortunate to find a publisher out of Bologna, Damiani. And the publisher, the owner publisher, Andrea Albertini, [just] happened to really be fascinated with New York, and he took on the project. It was ideal because they were actually a fine arts publisher, [a] photography publisher. So, they used beautiful paper and amazing printing. And so, I was able to get a book made that was able to feature the imagery prominently because it was really an image-based project, so that I didn't want to just have a small print book, textbook rather.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1707.0,1806.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And the book, just so our audience knows, is called Silent Beaches.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1806.0,1812.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Silent Beaches Untold Stories: New York City's Forgotten Waterfront.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1812.0,1817.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. And this includes—I've read through it; it's great. I really enjoyed it. It's a mixture of visuals. So, it's—[crosstalk].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1817.0,1830.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Each chapter is dedicated to a different location throughout the five boroughs that is lesser known and or neglected. And so, each chapter begins with a historical background written by me, sort of past [and] present, and then contemporary art, archival photography, and then the addition of a short story. [That new piece of it,] that was curated by my collaborators, the writing collective called Underwater New York. And they, being fiction writers were connected to some of really amazing prominent authors of today who agreed to do this. And what I did was I sent them my historical text and the photographs, and then they composed a short story specifically for that chapter.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1830.0,1894.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Amazing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1894.0,1895.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. That was really exciting. And they're strange stories, strange and wonderful, just like the locations. So, that was very exciting.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1895.0,1905.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And those include waterfront areas from all around New York. I remember reading, included, I believe Coney Island, but also areas specifically in Queens. So, the Rockaways, Newtown Creek, which I know is sort of the boundary between—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1905.0,1924.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e College Point.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1924.0,1925.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e College Point.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1925.0,1927.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, those yeah—Newtown Creek that divides Brooklyn and Queens, and specifically in Queens College Point, and the Rockaways, Coney Island Creek, I guess is actually Brooklyn, although they're also close together, that part of the world.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1927.0,1946.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And teaching in Queens and exploring these neighborhoods was really super exciting. I learned a lot stuff that I didn't know, but I tried to distribute the locations throughout the five boroughs to be inclusive for a more inclusive audience. And so, we have the southwest of Staten Island, an area that was called Sandy Ground, which was one of the first three African-American free settlements in New York after New York State declared abolition before the rest of the country, 1827. And so, these were oystermen working in Staten Island, and before the oyster industry had to shut down from typhoid, it was a thriving and successful middle class enclave.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=1946.0,2018.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And then, also areas in the Bronx like Hart Island, the public cemetery, that is finally getting known a little bit better. It is a haunting story. A million people buried there in mass graves. And that's off the coast of the Bronx, as is North Brother Island, which is now, they're both off limits, [access to Hart Island is changing].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2018.0,2048.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e North Brother Island was where Typhoid Mary was sent after spreading typhoid to [the children she cared and cooked for]—she was one of the first symptomless, asymptomatic carriers and was arrested and sent to quarantine along with other contagious people at various hospitals on North Brother Island that are now in ruins. So, these places are just, I was just astonished what I learned about them. They're just so strange and haunted and haunting and unknown. But some of the places are better known for example what is now Roosevelt Island. When it was Blackwell's Island, it had a very interesting history of various types of asylums. And yeah, I could go on.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2048.0,2104.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Well, I had heard the name Typhoid Mary. I'd heard that, but it never really put it together until I read your book and very interesting story.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2104.0,2116.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Isn't it? Yeah. What a life to be, to never be able to see anyone again. They gave her a dog for company, but she was in a little cabin.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2116.0,2132.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Had been infecting people without realizing it. She had no symptoms of her own.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2132.0,2137.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And people didn't know how it worked, and she thought she was just being persecuted. She was a single woman, an Irish immigrant, and making her way. And she felt, \"How could I possibly have killed these children that I was cooking for when I'm fine?\" So, it was a big learning experience for science. And of course, she wasn't the only asymptomatic carrier, but she was the first that was known by science. It's a crazy story.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2137.0,2174.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And her name and the disease were forever intertwined—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2174.0,2176.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2176.0,2178.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e —thereafter.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2178.0,2179.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Sadly. Her name was Mary Mallon, to give her a name.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2179.0,2186.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, thank you. Thank you for reminding me of that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2186.0,2190.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. So many stories, so many—New York has had such a strange past. And even though my grandmother lived in the West Village and my parents grew up in different parts of New York, I just am every day amazed at how little I know and how much there is to know. A lot of stories.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2190.0,2216.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e A lot of stories.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2216.0,2216.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e A lot of stories. A lot of stories.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2216.0,2219.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e And speaking of stories, you're also working on a children's book at the moment about a muskrat that lives in the Gowanus Canal. So, did this come out of your research about waterways in New York?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2219.0,2233.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes. Actually, it actually even precedes that a little bit because with teaching first year students, St. John's University, being a Vincentian University is very service oriented. And first year seminar has a component of service that's required of all students. And when I first started teaching that course service usually meant serving the underserved humans, either food banks or shelters or that kind of work. But I wondered about serving the environment, and this is where my dad's work was inspiring to me. And I live near the Gowanus Canal, so I started volunteering with the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, which is a wonderful organization that works alongside the Department of Environmental Protection, State and Federal. The Gowanus Canal is a Federal Superfund Site because it's one of the most toxic waterways in the country along with Newtown Creek. [New York City has two superfund sites].","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2233.0,2316.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great!","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2316.0,2317.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Well, at least for now. And so, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy works in tandem with them by remediating the shores of the canal. And that means picking up garbage, which will end up in the canal during a storm, or also planting species of flora that are hardy and native and can absorb some of the heavy metals in the shore. It's also toxic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2317.0,2355.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, it's not just the water, but it's [also the shoreline]. And so, I started bringing my students to [volunteer for their service]. It can be gross picking up nasty stuff. Sometimes there are needles and things like that, but it's [also] incredibly gratifying. And sometimes we're cleaning tree pits or potting up little sprouts and planting them, weeding, et cetera. And so, I began to do that very regularly, and there were always a lot of scientists around with that group. And I started to hear some stories about some of the things that people had seen over the years. And the one that probably stuck with me the most was the creatures that have wandered into the canal unintentionally and not made it. There was a very sad story about a dolphin that got lost and ended up in the canal, and everyone tried to save it, and it was poisoned.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2355.0,2427.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And then, that same thing happened with a minke whale that lost its way, but then someone saw a muskrat happily swimming around in the filthy canal looking just fine. And I thought, \"Wow! What a scrappy animal.\" Not only can it deal with the pollution in the canal, it seems to be fine, and it must live nearby. And that stayed in my mind. I did a painting of it, but it stuck in my mind a lot. And then I started imagining its life. And around that time, I moved my studio to the waterfront in Red Hook, and it was freezing cold winter. And there were mice, and the mice started to play into this plot that I was cooking up in the back of my mind, not even really intending do anything about it But then I really thought, \"You know I did another project, Silent Beaches, about the waterfront. I'm a visual artist. What about trying to do an illustrated story?\"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2427.0,2508.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e So, for the next three years, from 2014 to 2017, somewhere around there, it might be 2015, 2018, and longer, I started to write this story and illustrate it with oil paintings. So, I completed 31 oil paintings, and the story follows a very tried and true story arc—[orphans looking for their families]. This was after Hurricane Sandy. So, I imagined all the animals trying to find each other and find their nests and their dens. I imagined this muskrat being kind of a teenage tough kid and being out playing in the waves when the hurricane hits and finally exhausted swimming back to shore to find that the family den is gone and destroyed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2508.0,2572.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And soon thereafter, decides that it will take a journey up the Gowanus Canal to try to find family because that's where they must have gone, out of range of the storm. And shortly after that, the muskrat meets a little baby mouse, a little cry baby that is sort of desperate. And the two of them make an unlikely pair, and then they go and journey up the canal looking for their respective families. And so, all kinds of adventures and hijinks follow. They run into all other kinds of animals. And so, it's these orphans looking for their family story arc and learning all kinds of things along the way and finding their surprising stores of courage and cleverness. And so that's the basic plot, and it's too long right now, so I need to edit it back and then get it back out there. So, I am going to be looking for a publisher shortly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2572.0,2649.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Great. Well, it sounds wonderful. You mentioned that you painted 30 panels for it. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2649.0,2661.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2661.0,2661.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/106","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. How did it work? Did you map out the story beforehand? Did you do the drawings first or did you write the story before that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2661.0,2671.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/107","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e I think I did them simultaneously. I had an idea of the story and then started to write it. But at the same time, I was working out what the characters would look like in drawings and figuring them out in different positions. And imagining what other creatures that they would meet, and drawing them and observing the banks of the canal, and figuring out how they would build a raft and what would it be made of. And so, it really kind of came together, together. And then at a certain point, I think I wrote the rest and then went back into painting the scenes. And I probably ended up making more paintings than I'll end up using because I'm going to shorten the book. But it was a wonderful experience. I had never done any kind of real illustration. The way I was taught there was a big distinction between quote unquote fine arts and illustration, which I disagree with. And those divisions are relatively recent. And so, it was something that I've always carried a little bit of a grudge against these divisions. And so, it was wonderful to actually see what it was like to illustrate. But since I'm a painter, I had to paint them as opposed to doing in a different material.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2671.0,2779.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/108","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e But this is your first children's book?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2779.0,2783.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/109","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, and I feel like I really loved doing it. Really. I have five more books up my sleeve at least, and I need to make them a little faster than this one. And maybe using different materials that are a little bit quicker, maybe sketchier. But yes, I want to do more books about animals.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2783.0,2812.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/110","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Did you enjoy—did you have any particularly favorite children's books when you were a kid?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2812.0,2819.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/111","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Yes, a lot. But in particular, I was really enchanted, still enchanted with a book of fairytales, probably well-known things that are from various parts of the world, but probably mostly Europe. And they were illustrated by this French artist named Adrienne Segur. And her illustrations, I just could not stop looking at them. They were so beautiful, and I had forgotten all about it. And then, I got ahold of a copy. My copy is in tatters. Got ahold of a new copy. And that has been a very big influence, but also, gosh, many, now I'm drawing a blank because that one came right up. But in terms of illustrated books, that's the one, the biggest one. But I loved Babar and Winnie the Pooh. I mean, those are all illustrated as well, but I think the fairytales were the one for me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2819.0,2906.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/112","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. Great. What words of advice would you have for young artists? I know that's a very big question, but—","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2906.0,2915.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/113","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e It is. It depends on what kind of artists they're planning to be. If they're taking a more practical route, like graphic design, they don't need the same kind of advice as someone who's pursuing possibly being a painter or an illustrator. But I think its perseverance is the biggest thing I would say, is that you have to take a lot of rejection, and 99 percent of it is not about you or your work. And you have to just keep trying. You can't give up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2915.0,2963.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/114","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And I would suggest having some source of an income. It's very hard to depend on selling your work to pay your bills. Hopefully, that will happen. But to have some kind of way of making money that doesn't take every ounce of energy from you so that you have space for your work and that to always keep making work, even if you're really busy. But perseverance is the thing. There's a lot of talented people out there, but not everyone keeps showing up. And what we're all looking for is both the work ethic and the creative spirit. And it's a long game. That's the other thing about being an artist is that it's not like being a gymnast, where you're going to age out of it pretty quickly. You don't age out of being an artist. You can be an artist until you can't hold an instrument in your hand anymore. So, it's different.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=2963.0,3040.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/115","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, thank you very much. Do you have anything else you want to talk about?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3040.0,3044.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/116","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, I don't know. Let's see. Do I have time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3044.0,3051.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/117","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e As much time as you like.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3051.0,3052.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/118","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, okay. Well, I have a double appointment here at St. John's University. I'm part of the Department of Core Studies and the Department of Art and Design. And I have the great privilege of working with art majors but also majors from all different disciplines. And I think that experience and the support of the university and this moment of interdisciplinarity moment in time where that is a thing has been one of the greatest gifts because it feels very natural to me to have many interests and finding ways to cross pollinate them is embedded in my teaching, both to art students and to other students.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3052.0,3111.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/119","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e And so, I think that it happened very organically here because there was space for me in different places, in different capacities, and this has been a very, very, very positive and supportive experience and continues to be. So, that's something I want to say about being in Queens and teaching here. Is there anything else that I want to talk about? Yeah. I guess that's it. I don't know. Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3111.0,3157.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/120","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3157.0,3157.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/121","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay. I'll probably think of 5,000 things later. But thank you, Ben so much for this amazing interview and for the University Library and for the Queens Story Project [Queens Memory Project, corrected by transcript editor] for putting together these archives.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3157.0,3173.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/122","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBen Turner:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, thank you very much for your time and for your wonderful contributions.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3173.0,3178.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671/transcript/85067/annotation/123","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eElizabeth Albert:\u003c/strong\u003e Thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/21/collection_resources/161737/file/293671#t=3178.0,3179.0"}]}]}]}