The Green Iris
  • Art
    • Paintings
    • Drawings and Sketches
    • 3D
    • Murals
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Contact

The benefits of art moving excruciatingly slowly when there's a toddler afoot

6/13/2010

0 Comments

 
Between Orion dumping out my pencils, and trying to roll his cars through my paint, and continuously saying "help mommy, hey-elp!", I started thinking that I needed some paint that was safe for him to be around. It also led me to ruminate on a previous desire for more eco-friendly art materials. This art mama wants to be friends with mama earth.

I am beginning to think artists should really strive to reflect the times they are living in. There are so many ecological crises happening worldwide that to create art and not to attempt a greener approach might be considered irresponsible. I use acrylics for painting and although the cleanup is better for the environment than oils (if you're not flushing your rinse water down the drain) the plastic containers and tubes that hold them, and the plastic polymers binding the pigments aren’t exactly best buddies with our earth, and some of the pigments themselves contain heavy metals like lead that I don’t want my liver or the even smaller livers of my children to have to deal with.

What to do then? I’m sure there are sustainability issues with many different art supplies that I currently use but my first step is going to be trying out this product that I just heard about called GLOB. I ordered a kit last night and am really excited to start using it. It is a dry powder that you mix with water, made of all natural ingredients, and its manufacture and packaging are very earth friendly. Its labeling categorizes it as more of a craft and/or kid's art product which is excellent. It probably isn’t considered artist grade because it doesn’t have the same archival quality of current art materials on the market but I really don’t care. Digital photography can help artists achieve longevity if required; if we don’t take a hard look at all of our activities in an effort to save our planet, then longevity of a piece of art will be a meaningless concept.

Check back for more info as I continue to create a more mama-earth friendly studio.
0 Comments

The need to create

6/1/2010

3 Comments

 
"Writing can be a pretty desperate endeavor, because it is about some of our deepest needs: our need to be visible, to be heard, our need to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong." Even though Anne Lamott was speaking only about writing, I think her statement applies to any creative endeavor. These endeavors can be a little scary at times Why do we send our creations out into the world? Is it mostly about ego-- about having a voice? Is it about gain? I'd like to think that if there really is a deep driving force in me, it is one of growing, of communing with others. I'd like to think that this force is driving me to understand the nature of happiness.

As an introvert, it's often difficult for me to connect with others and yet I want to feel like I am contributing to a positive social consciousness on a real level. By that I mean making the world a better place. Too lofty a goal? Not if I recognize that not all change is loud and not all help is acknowledged; sometimes they are quite off the radar. I think the first step is finding happiness and repeating the discovery again and again.

You can read aphorisms all your life that tell you a variation of "you need to do in order to be [happy]" but you need to be in the right listening space in order to feel the truth and then in the right space again to actually want to implement. In order to do to be happy, I want to send something out into the world no matter how small the scale at least once a week.

Now back to satisfying the basic needs of the sweetly babbling, little guy next to me who wants desperately to be visible.
3 Comments

    Rachael Iris Staylor

    One of my earliest memories is holding a crayon in each hand and scribbling madly. I love to color!

    Picture
    I would call this my "not so daily journal"-- chronicling my efforts to overcome my creative fears while using motherhood as my compass. I welcome your comments and suggestions.

    Archives

    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010

    Categories

    All
    Creating Art
    Eco Friendly Art Supplies
    Identity
    Milk Break Quotes

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.