Conservator Kristi Dahm gives an inside view of the techniques employed by masters of watercolor painting, as well as the chemistry of pigments and the cutting edge contemporary methods used to analyze and preserve them. Dahm is an assistant conservator of prints and drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago. She has researched myriad topics related to the preservation and technical study of art on paper, from the analysis of Italian Renaissance metalpoint drawings to longevity issues for contemporary prints. She co-authored Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light, a study of the materials and techniques in Homer's watercolor paintings. Currently she is working on the watercolors of John Marin for an exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago.

In conjunction with the exhibition Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield.