I have been a conservator of easel paintings in private practice for the past nine years. My clients range from private collectors, art dealers and small museums to regular people whose grandmother's painting got damaged during a move.

My path to conservation has not been a straight one, resulting not from my own indecision but from the political situation in socialist Czechoslovakia, the country of my birth. At the time only a few children of the ruling elite were allowed to attend the prestigious Academy of the Arts. Instead I received my M.A. in Product Design. Growing up, I witnessed great disregard for my national cultural heritage. Old churches were left to deteriorate, and religious paintings of lesser importance were discarded. The largest synagogue in my city was converted into a ballroom, its extensive murals plastered over. As a high school student of Art Conservation, I fell in love with abandoned moldy paintings barely surviving in wet castes. Saving such paintings and helping others to prevent such destruction became my dream, and although I was unable to continue Art Conservation at university because of the political situation, I was determined to make it my profession. Years of study, practice and eventually coming to America made that dream possible.