There are two telling pieces of art hanging over Joyce Hill Stoner's skylit work space at Winterthur Museum. One is kept under wraps.

The one you can see is the colorful first-edition cover from Ozma of Oz. L. Frank Baum's story tells of the little girl who ruled Oz with such magical aids as a painting that reflects whatever part of the world its owner thinks about. Ozma was a role model for Stoner, professor of art conservation who directed the University's art conservation program at Winterthur from 1982 until 1997. When she started that job, she was eight months pregnant with her second daughter. When the baby was 3 weeks old, she helped lead a fundraising drive that eventually topped $6 million.

"Sweet little Ozma is a perfectly good ruler. I wasn't going to dress like a man. I was just going to be myself,'' says Stoner, wearing a cotton sweater, silver-studded pants and bright red boots, her reddish-blond hair touching her shoulders and dragonfly earrings dangling from her ears.

A custom-made shade protects the second piece of art--a watercolor portrait of Stoner by artist Andrew Wyeth. Stoner had the shade made to protect the painting in the high light of her studio. After she had restored paintings by Jamie and Andrew Wyeth and written extensively about their work, Andrew Wyeth told Stoner he'd like to do her portrait. A look of delighted anticipation spreads across her face as she raises the narrow shade to show it.

Directing one of the only three art conservation programs in the U.S. and modeling for Andrew Wyeth are accomplishments aplenty, but Stoner also entered a doctoral program at 49, has written more than 60 articles and book chapters, led the team that restored the historic Peacock Room at Washington's Freer Gallery of Art, founded the University's doctoral program in art conservation and wrote 22 musical theatre productions. One was an off-Broadway show that got a favorable nod from
The New York Times. She is married to PBS film critic Patrick Stoner.

Inside an office cabinet, she has a gallery of pictures of former students. She points them out with the same excitement reserved for her Wyeth portrait: "He came back and got his Ph.D. looking very different with his head shaved," she says, touching one snapshot. "She went to London and fell in love..." One student worked on Van Gogh's "The Potato Eaters." One cleaned and treated Rembrandts. One works at the National Gallery. One heads conservation at the Museum of Modern Art. One's at the Smithsonian. One's at Yale. Another is at the Guggenheim.

Sitting in her sunny studio with the beauty of Winterthur just beyond the glass, Stoner bubbles with enthusiasm about her family, her students, the Winterthur grounds and the art that surrounds her.

Stoner and her students work on art and furniture most people only see in books. Wearing magnifying Optivisors and looking through microscopes, they spend years restoring single pieces. Three panels from the original Maxfield Parrish mural designed for Granogue, a Wilmington, Del., estate, are currently in their workshop. Parrish replaced the panels when they began to peel, and the originals were in storage for decades. After two years of painstaking work, they have them about half restored.

She says sometimes accidental defects don't diminish the work. She recalls a scratch that changed the look of a barn door Andrew Wyeth had painted. He thought the scratch added to the painting. Stoner especially likes working on paintings by Andrew and Jamie Wyeth because she knows exactly what the artists wish for their works.

"I did my dissertation on Whistler," Stoner says, "but I didn't get to talk to
Whistler. I can talk with Jamie and Andrew Wyeth. The whole role of the conservator is to have the artist shine forth and have us be invisible."