Art and eco-consciousness
I have realized that trying not to create any waste while creating art has been a big blocking factor for me. I am very environmentally conscious, and in my daily life I have been trying to keep my waste output at a minimum, and also to use and consume material that puts, to my best knowledge, the least burden on the environment. With painting, and especially oil painting recently, I cannot really find a way around this problem. To point out my most obvious issue: even though I avoid using paper towels otherwise, when I paint with oils I just cannot not use them. And a lot of them. I noticed that unconsciously I have been trying to get away with using just one or two sheets (which simply does not work), and stressing so much about this actually kept me from progressing with my paintings and slowed down my process terribly. Recently I have given up - I had to admit to myself that I just need to use those damn towels without thinking about how wasteful this is. I am working on a big landscape painting right now - it’s almost done, just a couple hours of work left to do, and I have gone through almost a full roll of paper towels. If anyone has any helpful advice about alternatives, please don’t hold it in.
