E.B. Sciales

My name is E.B. Sciales. I am from the class of 2019. I was an English major with a studio art and art history minor and I am the 2018-2019 Eleanor Linder Winter Intern.

Before I started as the Winter Intern, I worked as a tour guide my sophomore year. What I love about being a tour guide is getting a chance to really delve into a specific show and getting a chance to really interact with all kinds of people who come to the Tang.

My first public tour was for the Claude Simard show and then I worked as an exhibitions assistant. I primarily worked on a show called 3-D Doings, and that show was really, really memorable for me to sort of see how a show originates from an idea, to looking at works of art, to, you know, actually putting up the show and being able to present it in front of a group.

Things that inspired the artists, like comic books and the blues, are things that have always inspired me. I collect a lot of vintage ephemera from the mid-20th century. For the 3-D Doings show, I loaned a record that I had in my collection, the 1970 record Because Is In Your Mind by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. The cover was done by Karl Wirsum. And so, I connected a lot with the artists in the show and their work and the show culminated in a artist visit where several of the artists from the show came to the Tang and did a talk and I got a chance to meet these people who I felt like were celebrities to me.

The Winter Intern is responsible for coordinating the annual Winter/Miller Lecture and they’re responsible for choosing an artist and coordinating that visit. I chose Chris Ware, one of my all-time favorite artists. Chris Ware is a huge inspiration to me because I’m a cartoonist and I draw my own comics.

When I first invited Chris Ware, it was understood that he was supposed to give a lecture. He asked me if I would interview him in front of the crowd. I was extremely, extremely honored, but scared. It was a real learning experience for me and a huge challenge, but I think it ended up working out really well. The day that Chris Ware visited the Tang, he also visited our comics class. He ended up speaking to the class with such generosity and sincerity.

As an English major, I was able to do a capstone project that was writing and drawing my own graphic novel. I kept thinking back to my experiences with being able to interview Chris Ware and he had sent me this email of encouragement about the project and he said, you know, “E.B., there’s a light at the end of the cartooning tunnel and I know you’re going to get there.” I kept referring back to that email every time that I was in the doldrums of working on this book.

As a student at the Tang, you’re really able to be part of the decision making of the museum. You’re given a lot of responsibility. Students are really involved in every step of the process of curatorial work.

The Tang has directly related to my own practice as an artist. I’ve put the things that I’ve learned at the Tang into the work that I’m creating, and I think that that is a really unique experience.