One of the responses to my friend's post referenced a Crayola toy light box they had purchased.
To which my friend (rightly) replied, "This is not a toy."
I totally get that. Our supplies are our tools. They are not toys. I am exactly the same way, very oddly serious about my art stuff. (It's like calling soft pastels "chalk". Please don't do that. Ever. They are not chalk.)
It's a bit strange, because we artists are playful people. We have wacky ideas and we do have quite a lot of fun creating. But our tools.......... there is something serious about them. Perhaps it is that we don't approach them casually. Sometimes they are expensive; sometimes not. It doesn't matter.
Either way, to me at least, I don't have a casual relationship with my tools. I play with them, but they are not playthings. They enable me to make art and to function creatively. They are my raw materials. I need them, and I love them. I learn from them. I respect them, and I have put in quite a lot of time, money, and effort to get to know them intimately.
They are such an intrinsic part of the most important element of myself, my life- which is my art.
My Dinosaur Light Box
**** I have serious light box envy. In fact, I have been oogling those beautiful flat light boxes ever since I saw one on the front of the Jerry's catalog...last year I think. I have looked at them online AND in-store. Several times.
The only issue I have with getting one is that I already have a light box- a dinosaur relic from last century I got at Pearl Paint on Canal Street...
...and in the last 12 years or so I have used my light box exactly zero (0) times.
For the work I do, I don't need a light box. Watercolor artists, especially illustrators, definitely need one.
You very eloquently expressed how I feel about my art supplies...
ReplyDeleteI have a light box. I use it every once in a while. I wouldn't like to be without it.
It is quite a few years old. I don't remember when I purchased it or where.
Very well said. Excellent post! :D
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