Green Guide for Artists: Nontoxic Recipes, Green Art Ideas, & Resources for the Eco-Conscious Artist

by Karen Michel

The Green Guide for Artists inspires artists to make better eco-conscious choices within their work and their studios and shows them how. The book has four The first contains recipes for DIY art supplies such as ones for mixing your own non-toxic paints andadhesives and making your own papers from recycled paper. The second offers safe and green practices for the workspace.The next section shares a fresh look at using recycled materials through creative step-by-step projects and a gallery section.The final section contains a resource guide for eco-friendly materials and supplies, includingwebsites and forum links.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Crafts

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be very helpful for an aspiring artist looking for green ideas and supplies. It was a little vague as to the prices of the recommended supplies. However, for somebody very serious about using eco-friendly materials in their studio, this book offered a lot of alternatives and recipes for creating your own supplies. I particularly liked how it featured artists who used green materials or used what they already had to create works of art. Also, there is a very helpful resource in the back, which includes websites of suggested supplies, etc.

[Lori Paximadis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid information about materials typically found in an artist's studio along with many recipes for greener alternatives and a good list of resources and material sources. Gorgeous and inspiring photos throughout, as well as a wonderful selection of profiles of artists who use greener approaches to their art.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this book. I just checked it out today, and I'm in the process of buying it. I'm just going to cut and paste a great review I found on Goodreads:

I found this book to be very helpful for an aspiring artist looking for green ideas and supplies. It was a little vague as to the prices of the recommended supplies. However, for somebody very serious about using eco-friendly materials in their studio, this book offered a lot of alternatives and recipes for creating your own supplies. I particularly liked how it featured artists who used green materials or used what they already had to create works of art. Also, there is a very helpful resource in the back, which includes websites of suggested supplies, etc.

[Ligaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent recipes for basic artist supplies - mainly paints and glues. The style of the book has a distinctly grubby feel to it, which I didn't care for. I am very concerned about the archival quality of my work and am dubious about some repurposing I saw in the projects presented: newspaper, old fabrics, plastic shopping bags? Interesting Artists' Gallery at the back of the book, but I wish there were more photos of artwork. This book is good for sparking more ideas.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up this book yesterday and have not put it down! It's amazing, and a resource every studio artist should have!

The recipes for making paint are particularly wonderful, and I can't wait to make my own, homemade, all natural, vegan gouache and watercolor paint.

If you're an artist, you should own this book.

[Rokabear Decker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read select chapters at a time....great for inspiration.

[Jennifer]

Interesting book for paints and adhesives, even just to see the makeup of each in context with the rest. I'll definitely try the milk paint recipe, which is surprisingly similar to making paneer. I'd like to approach making gesso and gouache as well. I wish there had been a cost breakdown on each recipe - I have no concept of what many of the pigments cost, for example. It would be helpful to know how the overall recipe compares to buying store bought materials. I would have also liked to see a greater variety of art in the examples. Many had a similar upcycled, broad strokes, purposely sloppy and craft-y look, which isn't really my thing and didn't make me want to make the products used in them. And although I'm less concerned about the archival quality of my work, the number of recipes with honey in them gave me pause - seems like asking to get a bug problem. But it was a good starting point for thinking about the materials themselves, their composition, and what each element provides.

[Carolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

The text has a bit of a lecturing tone. Really enjoyed the artist's showcased though.

[Jane Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested this book from the library after seeing it referenced on a blog about artmaking with your kids, and thought it was going to be a very “simple projects good to do with little people, with bonus treehugging” kind of book. It isn’t. It is far more useful than that. (And hey, I like treehugging and doing art projects with my kids. I would have been down with that.)

Here, Green materials and practices are approached from several angles; most notable are the two emphases on earth-friendly, and non-toxic, which in this case means more generally not health endangering in manufacture OR use. The author’s suggestions are both extensive and practical; while there are easy-looking recipes for those who want to entirely make their own paint, there is also advice for how to just choose better materials at the art store, or adapt more “re-use” techniques into your artmaking. She also covers how to do your own investigations into what environmental and toxicity concerns might be present in art materials that haven’t been certified through the major organizations.

As someone who used to work with blatant disregard for dangerous chemicals (why use tongs to fish prints out of the fixer when fingers are faster?), which might be part of why I have become so incredibly sensitive to things like plastic off-gassing smell, I liked the reminder that there are a lot of choices out there for materials that are neither bad for you *or* the planet. (I am terribly glad I never got interested in oil paints. The solvents sounds worse than darkroom chemicals were/are.)

I never thought I would want to try making my own adhesives, but she makes it sound fairly simple. Also, if you want to make your own paint, she has instructions for a wide array of kinds of paint: Gelatin Gesso, Watercolor, Gouache, Tempera, Glair (which I had never heard of before), Milk, and Casein, with some notes about what kinds of applications each paint is good for.

I like that when she is discussing different materials, she examines not only toxicity, but issues in manufacture, including whether it is animal cruelty free/vegan-friendly. Also, there is definitely something here for every kind of 2-d (and some 3d) artists, it isn’t, say, just for collage artists or pure painters, or anything so focused. (I’ve been declining to review — or finish — a lot of books lately that have very general titles, but turn out to be entirely about, oh, art journalism with collage. It’s become a pet peeve.)

When we get to the Projects section, it does get pretty more mixed-media heavy, which I think is partially becuase when you put an emphasis on reusing, repurposing, and using what you already have, mixed-media is a very natural place to go. I found the bookmaking projects the most intriguing, although I was surprised that it made me interested in trying paper-mache again, which I don’t think I’ve done since elementary school.

The Gallery section, which was handled by the other half of the author team, is very nicely done. Here, Green artmaking means several different things; artist’s specifically working with earth-friendly materials (particularly the no-electricity involved papermaker and the woman who invented an eco-friendly copper etching method), artists focusing on found object and re-use techniques, and artists whose concern is environmental is subject matter, including some really stunning conceptual work by Basia Irland, which I thought was as exciting as the first time I saw Andy Goldsworthy’s work, while being in no way derivative of it.

I think this is an excellent reference, and will be adding it to my collection soon. Sure, I could look up those recipes on the internet — once I remembered what I was searching for. But I’d rather just look at my shelf. (And it is a pretty book, with pretty pictures.)

[Darby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book! I checked it out from the library and can't wait to purchase it. It is a must have for artists who want to use safer, nontoxic, greener materials in their art. It is divided into 4 chapters/sections...

* Greening your Studio: talking about product safety and just being safe in the studio, green paints, mediums, canvas and such
*Green Recipes: making paints, paint recipes and adhesive recipes
* Green Projects: bookmaking, paper-mache, using found objects and other green projects
* Green Artist Gallery - info about each artist in the gallery and examples of their green art, it also has a resource guide

Each section had such great information. Often much of the information was things I didn't know, recipes that I could make right now in my kitchen without much effort, projects and inspiration that made me want to create right away.

The book itself is so lovely to look at just thumbing through it. But it is just so full of good information for artist who want to start using green in their studio. You might be able to find all the info online, but I would much rather have it in my studio and use because it just a great book.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was a really interesting and informative book on alternative art supplies that can easily made up by artists. It gives detailed instructions or recipes for making up various colors, as well as many interesting ideas on re-purposing what some might consider trash as art. I would recommend this book even for non-artists; it also has a very interesting section on the sorts of art some green artists are producing these days - I was impressed that all the artists covered in this section are female.

[Angelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente livro com dicas de comportamento e atitudes ecológicas para o artista consciente do possível impacto de sua intervenção na natureza. Reciclagem, reutilização, revisão de conceitos e materiais... Tudo de bom! Pena que nenhum editor brasileiro, até onde eu sei, ainda se interessou por contratar a obra.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awesome book that I picked up at Allen County. I might have to buy a copy for myself.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for any artist who uses paint in their crafts.

[ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of ideas and projects as well as truly practical infomation on alternatives to traditional art supplies.

[Ali]

natural pigments, adhesives, fun projects

[Anandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun ideas for reusing and repurposing items for art-making. I like the tips for less toxic ways to create art.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cool, though I didn't really care for some of the art ideas. I was mainly interested in this for the nontoxic recipes.