Making actual magic with pigments

Palette of the Month 004: Honor and Release

Happy Halloween!

I am so excited to share this very fitting October Palette of the Month with you. It’s a great contrast to the very vibrant and colorful post from September. But first, I want to share that this container for going on deep dives into the natural materials I am using in my art is one of the main things keeping me alive and physically present in my studio. Thanks so much to those who have chosen to subscribe and support my practice in this way. It really means so much, and the world needs more support for artists. Thank you.

This month’s palette, meditated on by means of painting shapes.

Color as medicine

When I am making my own paints and inks, it is an embodied process of being with the materials I am combining together. This month, I am exploring the non-physical elements that can be infused into a paint.

To make a paint is to craft a formula. A formula can be an expression, a set of relationships, a representation, and it can include different types of ingredients.

When I incorporate “ingredients” beyond the physical, such as intentions, thoughts, and energy, into my paints, it feels like medicine making.

The theme of the particular intentions in the October palette is very much about death, both in the context of both honor and release. In fact, those are the names of the two paints in this palette. I have enjoyed giving my paints names that aren’t only the name of the material, but what meaning I feel when creating the paint.

Read on to learn about how to burn your intentions (safely), making charcoal from old vines, why all black pigments involve death, and why I wasn’t done with the Marigold from last month.