Forgive me my impetuousness, Ms. Trant.

Good day,

My name is Peter Di Maso. I am the digital imaging editor at
the National Gallery of Canada. Although that hasn't been my
official title in the 4 and one half years I have been here, it will
be shortly. I am the fellow who produced the scans for the
Canadian Catalogue on CD-ROM. Although my background
was grounded in academic art historical training, I quickly
became conversant with the language of digital media and
enjoyed my work of editing poor source material into good,
digital visual material. Now I am beginning a more serious
venture for the Gallery, that of archiving the collection on our
new Kodak PhotoCd system, under the guidance of our new
Mulitmedia chief, Mark Paradis. I will be working on one of
the most sophisticated imaging systems in the country. I will
be producing (have produced) the images we feed into
AMICO as well.

A similar job opened up at the J. Paul Getty Museum a few
months ago. I applied for it, keenly interested in working with
their collection. I have not heard from them, though I
understand they can be a bit slow to process applications.
As much as enjoy the work here, there are a variety of
issues compelling me to strive for that job in LA. ranging from
the personal to the professional. I am spending my vacation
in April in L.A. (which means I will most likely miss the
Museums and the Web conference this year) and would like
to see the Getty imaging operation and perhaps arrange an
interview. I do not know how to proceed. I am writing to you
today to ask for some pointers, or the name of someone I
can contact directly to try make my stay in LA potentially
more productive. Do you have any insights about how I ought
to proceed?

I felt somewhat hesitant to contact you "out of the blue"; I
know your work, and have heard you speak at conferences,
but we have not ever met personally. But as this is
something I want with sincere professional interest, I thought
you might not mind hearing from me. I attach a copy of my
resume just to provide you with some context. I hope I have
not overstepped my bounds by asking for your assistance. I
do thank you for taking time to read this message.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Di Maso
New Media Studio
National Gallery of canada
380 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1N 9N4
(613)990-8029