I won’t lie – I love art supplies. There’s nothing more fun or inspiring for me than to visit my local art store and peruse possibilities. Because, you know, that’s what art stores really sell – possibility. Sure, they call these things crayons, markers, brushes, paint, paper etc, but what’s really there is a chance; to fall in love with a new medium or material you’ve never used before – maybe it will ‘the one’ – the one that truly unlocks you as an artist.
Instagram has a culture of ‘art material porn’ and it’s incredibly seductive. People on the cutting edge of ‘what’s new’ in colour and paper technology had me hook, line and sinker. I spent a lot of money on art supplies for a while hoping that, one day, I’d find the perfect combination for the type of work I wanted to make.
And, while getting a new art material does raise the dopamine levels and sometimes creates a flurry of art activity, it very rarely leads to an identity-shifting sustainable art practice. In my experience, it’s never the art materials but the artist. If I don’t have an underlying question to explore, or a reason or feeling of wanting or needing to create art, it just doesn’t happen. In fact, what seems true is that no matter what supplies we have, or what budgets we’re constrained by, artists just make art.
It’s an expensive and time-consuming lesson to learn. It’s also one that I have to re-learn everyday. I’ve had to go cold-turkey off new art supplies – unfollow influencers, avoid art shops for long stretches of time – just like any other addict. It’s only then that I get the time and space to look inwards and find those questions I’ve got simmering below the surface. Once I find those, a simple graphite pencil and some cheap printer paper seems all I need to explore them and find the answers I’m looking for – the ones that end up being called ‘art.