It seems mixed media is the new art world buzz word. I partially love and partially hate the labeling. I love it because it means that mixed media is gaining a foothold, it means I no longer had to adapt and change stuff to make it work with other media.

That is how it is supposed to work.

In reality it doesn’t. You see all the companies want to cash in on what we do. Art journaling has grown from a few of us messing about in our sketchbooks with paint, transfers and glue to the start of an industry. Sort of like when scrapbooking was taking off 10 years ago. All the companies got on the bandwagon and now they want on the art journaling bandwagon.

My gripe is that many of the companies slap the label “mixed media” onto their products without proper testing to see if the product WILL actually work in a mixed media environment. Take for instance the Ranger tissue tapes. Labeled mixed media, yet they won’t stick to acrylic paint. Or the Ranger masks that if you use spray ink the glue rubs off and won’t stick to an acrylic painted page, or a page with ANY media on it period. Both products will only stick to raw paper with a smooth finish. By not properly testing the products for true mixed media use these companies make their products useless for mixed media.

It’s really aggravating to pay the price for one of these products and have them not work as advertised. It’s a great disservice not only to the artists but to the budding art journaler and mixed media artist. Instead of bringing more people into the form they drive people away by making the form seem more difficult. If companies decided to accurately define and  test their products they would make what is an engaging art form more engaging and easy to take part in.

Instead they want to ride the wave of cash to a fat bottom line.