All that glitters

Fire Snake, 36" x 36", mixed media including glitter!

I recently completed two paintings with a fair amount of glitter in them. They look amazing, at least to an artist who clearly believes that more is better. The only problem was the amount of glitter that lingered around the studio afterwards. I swept, vacuumed, brushed and swept again, but glitter was still appearing randomly in all the other paintings I was creating at the same time. Unless I can develop some sort of glitter containment booth to do my work in, these two lovely pieces may be the last paintings with glitter I create.


When my daughter was young, she had a friend who was very serious, and his mother told me he hated glitter since he could never get it off his hands. At the time I was an artsy mom into crafts and self-expression and not very sympathetic to his issues, but now I feel for him. The appearance of glitter contamination on my cats at home was the last straw.  I also believe that I've inhaled a lot of glitter, which may provide exciting x-rays at some point in the future if glitter is metallic.


In addition, I had one instructor at art school who specifically said to the class, I don't care what mixed media you use, except no glitter. Who wouldn't immediately want to go out and use glitter right away? It's shiny! Filled with fabulousity!

"building a dream", 40" x 40", mixed media with fabulous glitter

I still have some extra glitter in the studio, so that can only lead to some new ideas. And whatever problems glitter may have caused, it still looks fabulous in the finished painting, so all the hassle may be worthwhile. Plus I've put resin on top of the glitter, so unlike my cats these paintings will never shed.