Whichever Medium You Choose, Art Matters

Most Likely, 16"x0", Acrylic

As I sit here trying to write this, I feel depressed. Things are bad right now. Yesterday, two more children were killed at a Catholic school. It felt trivial to even be talking about anything other than all the disasters befalling the world’s children. How does art even matter?

But, it also occurs to me that this is the time we need art more than ever. Leaders with authoritarian ambitions hate free-thinking artists. We threaten the very foundation of conformity that they strive for. I’ve even decided to change my genre of artwork. I don’t want to make just “pretty” or “interesting” abstracts. I want to make art that reflects the world that we are currently living in. Not only that, but I want to speak about injustice and racism and misogyny and climate change. The artwork of today will reflect the current climate of society. 

I will continue my AI-free blog because I feel it’s important for all of us to practice self-care, and one of the best ways is to make something. Create something, even if it’s a good meal or a flower arrangement or picking out which jewelry to wear with that outfit. 

One medium I most likely won’t encourage is acrylic paint. Acrylic paint usually consists of an emulsion of synthetic plastic resin, water, and pigment. Every time you wash out your brushes, that plastic goes into the water supply. I know, it’s onerous to put the burden of saving the planet on artists. It’s just that, at this point, every little bit can only help. Believe me, I used acrylic paint for years and feel I have mastered the techniques. It isn’t an easy transition for me to go to watercolor or oil. Of the two other painting mediums, oil is probably the closest thing to acrylic. Oil paint is most commonly composed of pigments in linseed oil. Linseed oil is made from natural flax seeds.

The book I would recommend for getting started with oils is The New Oil Painting by Kimberly Brooks. Ms Brooks gives us a wealth of information on the safest way to use the medium without the hazard of toxic solvents. You can find her books here. I will delve much more deeply into oil paints in a future post.