The Trading Game

I've been thinking the past few days about choices. I'm thinking about how everything in life is a trade-off of some flavor or another. I could spout an endless supply of examples, but I'll spare you the inner workings of my mind for now; I'll just touch on a few.

To start with, my art suddenly presents me with an interesting dilemma. Most everyone who knows me knows how I've been trying to add some environmental friendliness and social justice to my family's lifestyle. I've been very careful of what is made of petroleum & reducing our consumption of it. Then, suddenly, I found my muse (whose been on a yearlong furlough) out in my garden. As I followed her back inside to my studio (I always feel somewhat an imposter saying that), I took a good look around, and an idea struck me like lead. An artist's arsenal of tools & potions contains quite a lot of petroleum and/or chemical solvents. I have brushes with artificial (read: petroleum-based) bristles, foam brushes with plastic handles, acrylic paints, oil pastels, watercolors (with plasticizers), acrylic mediums, plastic palettes... and the list marches on. Does this mean I must sacrifice my art at the altar of petroleum reduction?

I've also been following the blog of No Impact Man, a guy (in NYC) who is trying to live for one year reducing his (and his wife & toddler's) consumption to zero net impact on the earth. He has lots of support and admiration (including mine), but he's taking a heaping helping of criticism to go along with it (including mine). He wants no impact that is directly linked to him, so why can his maid still use a car and a vacuum but he feels it necessary to shun the subway? There are a million questions just like those that can (and have or will) be asked of this project. It's interesting to me to see his justifications for certain choices.

It's all a trade-off, you see. Paper or plastic? Local or organic? Personal health or environmental good? Environmentally friendly or socially just? Do I give my business to a company that unnecessarily tests on animals but that harbors an environment of racial or sexual discrimination? Do I get my gas from an oil company that has paid money to people who have killed local dissenters in a startling and exceptionally suspicious chain of events, or do I go to one that has created more environmental disasters (and refused to answer for them) than I can count on both hands?

At the end of the day, every decision we make is a choice between it and at least one alternative, whether it's a conscious decision or not. I'm just hoping that by the time I reach the end of days, my scales will be tipped a little more toward the side of, "I made the world a better place even if I used petroleum products in my artwork."

Comments

[Alina]

Hi Lori,

You are right on with this post. It is always a trade-off. "Its not easy being green". This is, in part, what sparked me to start my blog and one of the things I want to talk about. I am still struggling with a couple of these dilemmas myself. But I also have the elusive feeling that it doesnt have to be. Like saving water or energy- good for the environment, good for your finances... but of course its not always as easy as that. In the end, you just have to find what makes sense to you and make a choice, and accept that sometimes there is no "good" solution. We humans have the great ability to rationalize our way out of anything. I like to think that if you use resources to create something that is valuable in some way, then its a resource well spent, rather than wasted. And thanks for adding me to your list!

[Vanessa]

I feel like I find myself choosing between two lesser evils every day! I think when it comes to your art, the good that it produces and the value of it ultimately outweighs the petroleum that went into it. Plus now that you already have all these materials, better to keep reusing them than to buy more and create more waste. Make sure you post some pics of your work when you're done (whether it's a painting or your garden)!

[Sara]

I try to think in these terms: not picking the less of two evils in each individual choice (some of which are lousy because our system of production sucks), but looking at whether I'm doing my best to reduce my overall impact. And trying to get better at that all the time. We'll never have no impact, unless we go back to living the way nature intended. Just think if we all did a little better how the whole world could change.

[karrie]

Have you ever figured out your environmental footprint? (If you Google, there are a few quizzes online.) It helped me feel a tiny bit better about the choices I make, even though there is loads of room for improvement.

And I agree with the pp--you already own these materials, so it makes sense to use them.

[Lori V.]

Hi, all... thanks for all the great comments!

For those that have asked or mentioned it... I never meant to imply I would waste all the art supplies by not using them... I just meant, am I willing to give up buying them when they run out?

For me, the final answer is: NO! I think the beauty that I bring into the world with my art (and a LOT of my art is reviving and re-using things destined for the landfill anyway) that I am willing to live with the fact that they are petroleum products. I'll still shun as much petroleum as I can, but these things are, to me, very valuable.

[Juanita Johnson]

Hey Lori,
I found you! So good to her that your muse is BACK!!!
Here is Cindy's blog http://cindygilstrap.typepad.com/junqueart/

We will all have to get together soon. Take care, Juanita