"HAND DRAWN" 2021 - Mill Pond Gallery

Paul Speh is the Fine Arts Packer for the Brooklyn Museum. He has worked for the museum for
nearly two decades as part of the Registrars Department. In this role, he is solely responsible for
designing, constructing, and packing of fine art crate interiors and exteriors for a large and diverse
encyclopedic museum collection. He consults and collaborates closely with registrars, conservators,
collections management, and the art handling staff on a daily basis to ensure the safe travel and
return of objects to and from the museum. Paul has extensive experience as a Fine Arts Crate Shop
Manager and Technician. For more than 20 years, he has worked with or for most, if not all of the
museums and societies in New York, as well as multiple private collections. Since joining the
museum in 2008, He has established the Crating and Packing Waste Cost Reduction Program. A
successful ongoing effort to recycle and repurpose materials normally discarded. The materials are
collected, redesigned, and reused in more than three-quarters of loaned objects shipped per year.
Resulting in more than 12 years of sustainable packing. A formally trained artist, he also has a BFA
in Printmaking from Purchase College 1996, and an MFA in Printmaking from the Cranbrook
Academy of Art 1999.
I am an artist as well as an avid angler. In recent years, I have been combining the two elements to
create works that reflect the love of both endeavors. Much influence over my works has been
gained by the first- hand knowledge of some of the world's treasures that have passed through my
fingers. Folk art, jewelry, textiles, stained glass, as well as many other elements have been guides
while creating my fly drawings. Sometimes directly, other times indirectly. It began in 2007 when I
started commuting to the Brooklyn Museum from my home in Lake Ronkonkoma. A two-hour
commute each way. I long commute for sure, but it is 4 hours to do whatever you please. Most
people read or sleep. But I decided I would attempt to draw between those other endeavors. A
meditation of something I truly enjoy. Saltwater Fly lure tying and fishing. I have been drawing them
for two decades now only in a small sketchbook format. When I discovered the call for entry for
Hand Drawn in late January 2020. I knew it was time to create a larger version of the
commuter fly fishing drawings in more detail and at a drawing table, not the very shaky train.