Author Archives: leslie

Health and Safety in the Art Room

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I shot a little video about this subject the other day but I didn't like how it came out.

When I was in school and taking art classes most of my professors had some SERIOUS rules concerning health, safety and sanitation in the art rooms. My painting professor Jim was the most serious of these rule enforcers. A man with a serious (dour?) sense of humor, a love of art and no sense of smell. He'd lost the sense of smell by working in an enclosed room with oil paints for many years of his life. (He was probably in his 50's when I had him in school.) As a result it was drilled into our heads that we should work in a well ventilated room while we painted, wear a respirator while we sanded paints, never ever ever spray cadmium pigments, never put our brushes in our mouths, all cups had to have a lid and certainly NO food in the art room.

Required reading in his class was the Painter's Handbook by Mark David Gottesen. Not only is it a useful text but it has a section that details the health hazards of pigments. This is of interest to anyone who works with artist grade pigments. If you are using craft grade materials the pigments are not usually of the hazardous sort. But when you start buying the artist grade paint there are some nasty chemicals within. Keep in mind that paints are not the only thing that has these pigments within, also loaded with nasty stuff are pastels, oil pastels, watercolors, gouache, ink and well; any artist/professional product will have the nasty chemicals in them.

So these artist grade pigments are usually a combination of chemicals. Some of the pigments are not an issue but some are. All of the cadmium, cobalt, and chrome pigments are carcinogenic, aka cancer causing. Many of those same pigments are combined with mercury to get other colors. And, well, mercury is easily absorbed through the skin. Mercury is known to cause birth defects and is also linked to other health issues. Read this much more scientific article. Many pigments also contain lead, though that is getting to be less and less the case.

Why did this come up? I've been watching a lot of art journaling videos in which people smoosh pigment around with their hands. It gives a particular look that is pleasing but easily replicated with filbert brushes with stiff synthetic bristles. Regarding my paragraph above, hands in paint? Not a good idea, though it gives a great look. Hands in glove in paint, okay by me. Hands in barrier cream in paint slightly better than just hands in paint. It gives some protection but can it really stop mercury and cadmium from seeping into your blood stream? I've no idea. We used to use silicone "glove" to help us clean our hands after a painting session but not to keep it off out of our skin entirely.

So, if you are going to smoosh paint around with your hand stick to the non-toxic craft grade paints, things like portfolio pastels. Please look on your labels for the non toxic logo and or the toxicity labeling. If you have questions about the toxicity of your paints google the manufacturer, name of the paint and the words health and safety to get the chart. Here is an example of Golden's Titan Buff page. And check out this page for all of liquitex's paint and mediums.

My professor's seemingly insane rules instilled in me a lifetime of good studio hygiene and practice. I don't eat in my studio, I wear a mask when I sand, when using solvents I work in a well ventilated area and I use a water bottle not a glass for H2O and my coffee cup has a lid. I ask that you are all careful when working in your art journals.

Bookbinding on Ustream

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I've been ustreaming myself working on the Facebook Face Experiment over the last few weeks. It's been a blast. I'm running out of pages in my journal so I need a new one. On next week's (7/19) Ustream I'll be live streaming a little long stitch bookbinding action. If you want to follow along you'll need the following materials:

Thread:  I'm going to be making a big ass sketchbook with poster board pages so I'm going to use heavy hemp cord.

Wax: A candle, this helps to keep your thread from tangling

Needles: Always have more than one on hand, in case they break or go missing I'll be using either a #16 or #18 needle

Paper: I'm using poster board cut to 10×20 inch sheets and folded in half. 4 folios in a signature. 10 signatures total.

Stiff Paper for the cover or fabric or leather or… whatever. I've stitched together a sandwich of paper, poster board, and fabric to make my cover. You will need something that is stiff or you can join together 2 pieces of board with fabric or leather.

An awl or a thumbtack to make holes through your signatures and the spine of your cover.

If available a hole punch to punch holes through your spine, if you don't have this  you can use a thumbtack or an awl.

Ruler, to measure stuff.

More info to come!

You don’t need more stuff

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When I started art journaling i used the following materials: pen, glue, tape and my journal. Sure some of those pages are pretty damn ugly but there is a truth and raw honesty in those pages that is powerful. When I look at pages online I'm often drawn to pages with a similar make up. The ones where the maker's raw emotion is visible.

One of the things I've noticed now that I've gotten rid of TV is that I don't want so much stuff. The truth is I don't need it. The same goes for art journaling. For awhile there I was getting caught up in stuff and materials and this and that. I kept telling myself if I just had THIS or that THING I'd be able to reach some further imagined potential.

If I can be blunt here, it just blocked me, drove me into a rut I couldn't get out of. I was always looking for the next best thing, spending money on crap I didn't need and falling into the trap of companies that thrive on a person's need to keep up with the joneses art supplies.

A couple months ago I dialed it back, picked up my journal and a pencil and just started to draw and write.

I felt free. Free.

So here I am 3 months later and I've still kept it dialed back. the materials I used on a regular basis: pencil, watercolor crayon and acrylic paint. My work has progressed further than when I was collecting stuff, and lets face it that's what it was a collection of crap I didn't need or want.

A few days ago I cleaned out my upstairs "crafting drawer" and took out all the Tim Holtz's masks, the spray inks, colored pencils, stencils and other stuff I wasn't using and put it in a box and took it to my downstairs studio and shelved it. Some of the materials have great uses but for now, I don't need 'em, they simply help to clutter my space and mind.

So I implore you to simplify, if only for a day, grab only one mark making tool and your journal and see what you can do with just that one tool. Be free with me.

How I came to be a Johnny Cash Fan

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Growing up my grandparents listened to Johnny Cash, mostly his devotional stuff. I hated it mostly because my tone deaf grandmother sang a long. Like her I feel the music deeply but I'm completely tone deaf and have zero rhythm. Unlike her I chose NOT to sing along for the happiness of all who are around me.

So for the longest time I had this really negative view of Cash. It was funny anytime I'd hear his music I'd kinda tap my toes then think, "Ack, its cash, yuck!" Then I got a little older and liked his stuff, but I was never a huge fan, that is until I got this crap job.

The summer I worked part time I got this crap job working at a group home for elderly adults with developmental delays. Most of the time my job was pretty easy, I cooked, I cleaned, I made sure people took their meds, watched TV and brought my art and craft supplies for evening shifts. It was pretty sweet now that I think about it. Part of my job was to drive a minivan around to where ever these people wanted to go. I used to plan picnics to the park, drives around town and trips to the qwickie mart.

These trips were always a lot of fun mostly becuase this one old lady was seriously obsessed with Johnny Cash. When I mean seriously obsessed she had just about every Cash album ever made, on cassette. Some of the stuff was vintage and some of it was bargain basement $1 bin junk. Every trip she'd bring 2 or 3 tapes and we'd pop 'em in. I'm telling you right now you've never felt pure joy until you've ridden in a van full of special old people singing along with Johnny Cash at top volume.

Seriously it really got me loving Johnny Cash.