Art & Trash: For All You Artists Out There

Why You Should Never Trash Any of Your Work

One thing my college professors always told me was to never throw away any of my work, even if I ended up hating the end result. This is because it can be reused later on down the line. This tip is especially useful for you painters and screen printers. In screen printing, things don’t always turn out as you had hoped or imagined. Sometimes you use too much ink, sometimes not enough, often things don’t line up when you are using more than one color, etc. When this happens, you should save your prints anyway. Later down the line you may be working on another project and realize you can print right over your old one which saves paper and could add an interesting twist to your project. This goes for painting as well. Canvases can be reused, especially with oil painting. Just paint your light shades on first and build from there. Both of these tips can save time and money, and also prevent wastefulness. Share your thoughts and ideas about reusing old pieces.

Written by: Jen Ebenrick