 When I have taught art, a high proportion of my art students were cigarette smokers and I never allowed cigarette smoking in my studio both for safety reasons and my personal dislike of the cigarette smoke and the smell. I would like to know these things and I would be interested in comments on this subject. This does not affect me personally, as I do not use highly volatile thinners, though most artists do and many smoke. I have actually seen an artist smoke a cigarette while cleaning brushes over a large can of open kerosene an obvious risk of fire. Common sense is not always common. Fire Hazards Associated with Chemicals Used in the Arts The fire hazards associated with artist’s materials are often overlooked, yet fire may be the greatest risk artists face. Common art materials that may cause a fire include flammable or combustible solvents, oily rags, chemical oxidizers, and compressed welding gases. Improper use of solvents causes most art-related fires. Artists must be aware of a solvent’s flashpoint and volatility, the two primary properties that influence a solvent’s ability to initiate a fire. The flashpoint, the single most important factor, is the temperature at which a solvent gives off enough vapour to form an ignitable mixture with air and can ignite in the presence of an ignition source such as a flame or electrical spark. The lower the flashpoint, particularly when it is at or below room temperature the more hazardous the material. A substance’s volatility determines how much of it will evaporate and mix with air. In order for solvent to catch fire, it must evaporate and its vapours must mix with air to form the right fuel/air ratio (typically 1-3 percent). The more volatile the solvent, the more readily it will evaporate and the more likely it will create an ignitable fuel/air mixture. Acetone is extremely volatile and if spilled, it will evaporate almost instantly. Mineral spirits, which has a much lower volatility than acetone, will evaporate much more slowly if spilled. To control the risk of a fire, always choose a solvent with the highest possible flashpoint and the lowest possible volatility. Ventilate the area to keep the solvent concentration from reaching an ignitable air/fuel mixture. Remove ignition sources such as open flames and electrical equipment that may generate sparks. Vapours from flammable solvents are heavier than air. They can travel some distance to an ignition source and then flash back to the solvent source. When dispensing flammable solvents, from large metal containers, ground both containers to dissipate static electrical charges. To prevent fires, store rags soiled with setting oils (tung oil, linseed oil) in tightly closing metal containers and have them picked up daily for professional laundering or disposal Flammable solvents should be stored in a storage cabinet designed for flammable materials. When using flammable solvents, out in the studio, store them in safety cans. If you handle chemical oxidizers such as chlorates, chromates, nitrates, or peroxides, store them apart from organic solvents and other readily combustible materials in storage units specifically designed for these materials. Some types of substances such as organic peroxides and nitric acid are so reactive they should be stored separately from all other chemicals. If you use compressed gases, such as acetylene or propane, be familiar with all the complex regulations that apply to them. Secure them in an upright position and test the regulator fittings and connections for leaks before using them. Store flammable compressed gases, separately from compressed oxygen. 3 Comments Tile Art. 01/29/2010
 Artist’s can do some incredible tile work. It is worth considering trying working with tiles as a creative medium. I have seen artists use a mixture of modern commercial tiles and broken pieces of patterned English bone china to create beautiful coffee table tops. These photos above are of the tiles in the footpath in front of the gate leading into the garden of the Art Gallery Restaurant, at 50 Emily Street Seymour, Victoria. To see more travel photos and stories, check out my 'gone bush' blog at http://www.gray-nomad.com The photos below are of the flower boxes at SPC Ardmona, KidsTown, Midland Highway, Mooroopna, Victoria.  Lifelike Drawing in Colored Pencil with Lee Hammond  Steps to writing your artist’s Resume. by Kathy Shell List your most recent activities first (under each heading). Use 10 pt. type or larger. 1. Name Name (in bold or larger font) Address: Phone Number(s): Work, Studio, Home, Fax Email: Personal Website: (if appropriate) Comments: Be sure to list addresses and phone numbers that are current. Make it easy to be reached. The inclusion of such information as place and date of birth is optional. 2. Artistic Education 3. Artistic Teaching experience 4. Grants/Fellowships (Awards/Honors, etc.) 5. Exhibition Record (* solo shows marked by asterisk) 6. Bibliography (Reviews/Articles/Catalogues, Reviews/Articles/Interviews) 7. Publications (Published Writings, Critical Writings) 8. Conferences (Conferences/Symposia) Other CategoriesThere are a wide variety of professional activities that can be deserving of headings. Gallery Representation (Gallery Affiliation) Artist Residencies (Artist-in-Residence) Professional Service (Service) Technical Abilities (Technical Expertise, Technical Skills) Professional Organizations (Professional Affiliations) Exhibitions Juried Exhibitions Curated Collections your work s are included in. Commissions. Website References Using a professional service, to write your resume. I am qualified to and happy to assist creative artists wanting professional help in writing their resumes. With more than fifty years of successful, creating, exhibiting, and international sales in a wide range of creative arts including business writing of resumes. I have been assisting artists to write resumes for the past thirty years. My fee for this is my standard, art tuition time based fee. The Art Journal Workshop: Break Through, Explore, and Make it Your Own Works on Paper, Touring Art Studio, Set Up. 01/26/2010
 We moved into a large onsite van with seven attached rooms, and began renovating it, last summer. This is not our main home, our main home is our Eco-tourer caravan and out troop carrier, Toyota, land cruiser work mate, car, I refer to as ‘troopy’. I needed this summer home to have room to store my lifetime supply of art materials, left over from the art supply shop we had connected to our Buninyong Gallery. I will never have to shop again for watercolour papers. I have more left over from the art supply shop, we closed, than I could use in three lifetimes at the rate I am going now. I am beginning to use the textured acid free watercolor papers for my pastel sketches and I will pack some acrylic paints this year and try these out on the papers too. I tend to vary what medium I take away with me on tour, each year. Some years it is oils, others watercolors, and this year, based on my enormous stack of artist, quality watercolor paper, I think I will do ‘works on paper'. I have bought some of those office paper, storage systems at Big W; they hold A4 size paper and will be great for storing 9” x 12” paintings while they dry. They were $20. each. I bought 5 of them. I hope to have the opportunity to paint prolifically this trip and I don’t want, the not knowing where to store part wet art works, to slow down my enthusiasm. Now, when I do travel with oil paint that stays wet for weeks, I will have an adequate storage system for my on site paintings, as we travel. Artists are always wondering how to transport wet paintings and the narrow draws, made for scrap booking and office papers in lightweight plastic storage containers are ideal for this job, 'see photos'. This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.   Funny Open Hour, Signs! 01/24/2010
 In my touring Caravan. Cardboard display rack of hand crafted, bookmarks created from the images of my art works. Sign on my touring caravan door. "Open Hours: Open most days about 9 or 10. Occasionally as early as 7, and sometimes as late as 12 or 1. We close about 5:30 or 6. Occasionally about 4 or 5, and sometimes as late as midnight, or later. On some days we're not here at all, but lately we've been here a lot, unless we're not here." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sign on my Summer Studio Retreat Door. ‘Closed’, I will meet friends in face book, the park or the shopping mall for a coffee. I am very busy continuing to work toward our 2010 tour of Eastern Australia. I have organized cardboard displays, which I love, for the small handmade art cards and bookmarks we will have for sale direct from the artist, available only from our caravan, while on tour, on request. We will not be showing any of these items to people from our summer studio retreat as this is my creative time, not our interacting with people time. I know other creative vocation artists; will understand the need for a creative retreat, a time for an artist and writer to isolate themselves away with their work. My sister who is a writer and artist living in California lives in a log cabin in wilderness adjacent to a National Park, up the North Coast, past San Francisco. She mixes with people only at exhibitions and the theater, this is how artist writers need to live, and even with this isolation, she tells me she is two years behind in her work. Somehow, I too, need to create this barrier of isolation during my time here in Victoria. I need this time to create, while I have access to larger studio space where I can spread out my work. I do not want to offend or reject offers of friendship, but my summer home and studio, is private. The only address, I give out is that of one of my daughters, I cannot broadcast the address of a place that I advertise as being vacant for six months a year, while we tour. I have no address on my business card. Our address is listed officially as ‘Highways of Australia, and in summer that’s opposite an oat field, near a lake, in the Goulburn Valley on private property, doesn’t even have a street that is listed on the map of the town and we are not ‘in’, for visitors, we are ‘in creative retreat’. It is not quite the ideal for the artist writer, log cabin, retreat, in the wilderness, my sister has, but it is ours and we love it and the privacy we seek for it. I hope my friends will understand my need for creative retreat time and place. Lifelike Drawing in Colored Pencil with Lee Hammond  Art Bookmarks, in cardboard display unit, in our touring caravan.  A wonderful meeting with Western Australian friends, during our West Coast tour. I need to begin making up a map showing where all my friends live so I will know when I am in their area, as I would love to meet more of my internet friends, and my blog readers while I am travelling in their area during 2010. It is a busy time right now, organizing the tour. Once I am nearing late Summer I know I need to get moving on completing all the maintenance jobs, the car is booked for service next Friday, We just had the air conditioner service, and the caravan service comes next.  Meeting Internet friends, with the view of South Perth, WA, in the distance. Lifelike Drawing in Colored Pencil with Lee Hammond On Location Oil Painting Studio Set Up. 01/23/2010
 Reg has installed a 12-volt chargeable battery run, bright LED light in the inside cabin of our ‘troopy’, car and I have a 240-volt florescent light fitting mounted high on the cargo barrier behind the driver’s seat. In the cabin, of the troop carrier, we have removed the eleven passenger seats to make a small room and I have mounted a table across at the back, tied to the cargo barrier. Underneath this, I will have plastic lightweight draws containing my oil painter’s art studio equipment. I have removed the comfortable seat and back from a conventional swivel stool we found at the tip shop and I place this on top of a plastic crate, which doubles as storage and the base for a comfortable seat. Can you tell, how eager I am for our next painting and writing, tour? Safety note: I do not use thinners or flammable liquids when oil painting or cleaning brushes so no dangerous materials are carried in the car. Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea. 01/22/2010
 If you are visiting Korea and heading to Seoul, it is worth visiting the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, set up in a complex of three interconnected buildings. Some people visit just to view these three, architect designed buildings. The South Korea-based technology giant Samsung has created one of the finest corporate art collections and it encourages public viewing of the collection through the creation of this wonderful venue for art. In building one, there is 120 objects on display, from the prehistoric era to the Chosun Dynasty (1395-1910). A sleek glass-and-steel structure by architect Jean Nouvel, Museum II contains Korean and international modern and contemporary art, from 1910 on. Among the works on view are major examples by Rothko, Stella, Judd, Beuys, Nam June Paik, Damien Hirst, Matthew Barney, Lee Bul and Do-Ho Suh. The third building, the so-called Black Box, designed by Rem Koolhaas, holds the Samsung Child Education and Culture Center, which contains classrooms as well as galleries for temporary exhibitions. Well worth a visit. Artist Beware of Fine Dust. 01/20/2010
 A close up of a soft pastel art work, showing the fine particals of pigment impregnated fine dust, talc, a hazard for artist's who breath this fine dust as they work.. Soft pastels have always carried the risk of inhalation of the fine dust. Modern brands made in Europe, US and Australia claim their products are currently asbestos, free. They take this information from the companies supplying the talc used in the production of the soft pastel. Tests by the United States Mine Safety and Health Administration found asbestos in all four, supposedly asbestos free, talc samples that it tested in 2000. Asbestos was found, in Artist’s Pastels and Children’s crayons as recently as year 2000. It is a case of ‘Artist’s Beware’, when you work with soft pastels, as you are working with fine dust that when inhaled is harmful. Whether it contains asbestos or not, we do not need a mesothelioma lawyer, to help us understand that the inhaling of fine partial talc and pigments is a serious health hazard. I love working in artist’s pastels. If I did not already own a kit worth thousands of dollars, I would never begin to use them and I swear I will never buy another pastel. I am currently having a little play with them, trying to decide what to do with the kit I have. My knowledge tells me I should not ever use them, the recent results of what can creatively be achieved in a quick pastel sketch, makes me want to cling to these hazardous art materials. My heart has me clinging still to something, intellect tells me I should relinquish. Do yourself a favour, if you already work with pastels, wear a dust mask, work with as little dust as possible, no tapping on the back of the work or blowing of the dust, indoors and damp dust after each use. Use them as infrequently as possible and do not substitute this medium for anything else you could inhale, like volatile thinners. Do all spraying of fixatives out of doors. Discourage others from taking up any art medium where the risk of inhalation poisoning is unacceptably high. Yes, for sure the pastel manufacturers label these materials safe. The marketers are not the ones contracting cancers at a higher rate than the general population like professional artists do. Art is to be enjoyed; you cannot enjoy life or art if you are chronically ill so chose your mediums with health as the high priority. Work safely, free from the risks of inhalation, ingestion and absorption through the skin; pigments and binders. This means to minimise your contact with artist’s soft pastels. Artists Soft Pastels! 01/20/2010
 Resourses for artists, working with Artist's soft Pastels. This information is for existing pastel artists. For those who have not begun working in pastels. my advise is, DO NOT DO IT. Beware of inhallation poisoning from the fine talc dust and pigmets.. Instructions for Handling and shipping Pastels. From SQUIDOO:-ust click a link to go straight to that topic
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