A Few Words About a Big Subject: Art and Material Ethics
STRATEGIES FOR ACQUIRING
STUDIO ART SUPPLIES
– RECIPE – several ingredients are combined in precise proportions and manipulated, either ground, distilled, heated, evaporated, stirred, etc.
– FORMULA – laboratory concoction with ingredients that have been removed from their original context and are no longer distinguishable
– PRESCRIPTION – use of art medium generating strategies that simultaneously cure an environmental malady
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF ART MEDIUMS
– BAD = purchasing most commercial art products.
– LESS BAD = purchasing products manufactured to minimize waste, reduce toxic by-products, and avoid depleting resources.
– GOOD = crafting one’s own mediums from non-polluting and non-depleting ingredients.
– BETTER = growing, harvesting, mining, and processing one’s own mediums to ensure environmental vigilance.
– BEST = establishing Art Studios that also function as Environmental Health Clinics.