“Before landing on this small island nation, I had never once had the experience of seeing the artifacts of a place, in that same place. Every stone mortar and diabase pounder and picrolite figurine and column fragment and ceramic vessel was created, used, loved, abandoned, and discovered well within a 200km radius of my body. Of and within. Total immersion.”
Read moreA Ground from the Ground– gypsum & gesso deep dive
Interrupting the continuous colorscape of the Atacama Desert were white mineral veins winding through the cliffs, clustering in the sand, glinting in the sun. Gypsum. I smiled to myself, recounting the mineral’s characteristics in my head, its uses from plaster of paris to traditional gesso. I visited the material from my favorite painting ground in its natural habitat: the ground.
Read more"What's in a Name?" – the nomenclature of pigment and color
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” Shakespeare certainly wasn’t thinking about artists’ pigments when he wrote this. Let me start by establishing that a pigment is a single substance with a consistent chemical composition, whereas a paint may include one (or many) pigments mixed with an adhesive binder that cures into a paint film. Where the convolution of pigment nomenclature closes doors to immediate clarity, it opens other doors to a deeper understanding.
Read moreThe Story We Stand On – how do you know if a rock will make a pigment?
With rocks come colors, with colors come pigments, and that’s really where it all starts and ends for me. One of the most common questions I am asked is some variation of: How do you know if a rock will make a pigment? I will share some knowledge and a bit about my own practice with pigments, and in doing so, I promise to only drag you partway down the rabbit hole of wonder, reverie and deep time.
Read moreEarthly Link – all about earth pigments
Winter is slowly slipping out of our grasp, the new realities of 2018 are finally settling into place, March is already upon us, and oh my goodness I need a second to catch up. A moment of reprieve, a source of grounding, and yeah, probably a double whiskey neat. The earth itself, what with gravity and all, is the most grounding thing I know. With Capricorn season far behind and Taurus a month away yet, I’m feeling the need to refocus and establish this grounding for myself. How, you ask? Earth pigments, of course. Let’s talk about them.
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