It’s a cautionary tale.

I tend to jump right in and not think about chemistry (which I was pretty good at) when it comes to paints and shellac and all kinds of wet colorful things.

When I was first painting with acrylics, I took our RV to Southern California to hang out near my brother and paint in a retreat-like setting, with cats (two) and dogs (two, huge) in tow.  He would come by with dinner a couple of times a week — amazing Chinese which could not be found ANYWHERE in Oregon.

I was at Zora’s Art Store in Santa Monica, and purchased a bit of Golden’s Stainless Steel.  It was my first foray into adding materials to acrylic, and when I was back near Pasadena playing with my new toy, I wished I had bought the hematite and sand and a bigger tub of medium because I loved making glazes.  The very next day I happened by a craft store, and hoped they carried Golden.  No such luck, but I saw small vials of unusual metallic dust, and thought, “What the hell!  I  will make my own!”

I had several empty bottles of baby food (cat treats) and began mixing.  I went to bed that night with two dogs and two cats beside me.  At 3am I heard, “Pop!  Pop!”  Scared the hell out of me — sounded like a small gun.  The cats went flying into the closet, and the dogs began barking fiercely.  I walked into the “living room” and saw the culprit: my mixed jars were exploding, literally twisting the tops off the baby food jars!  Metallic and smelly colored acrylic paint covered (thankfully) a canvas and a the window slates.  I quickly popped the rest of the jars into a double paper bag then into a plastic trash bag, and spent the next few hours getting acrylic paint off the blinds.

Learned my lesson.  Now I call Golden and ask the techies before I mix a batch of colorful jelly-jar bombs up, and read the MSDS and specs, and proceed cautiously.

I bet YOU thought I was going to show you my worst painting, right?  Nope, into the trash they go!  Below, a shimmery mermaid from those early years, when I painted very graphically, and my architect was still in charge . . .  M is also for Mermaid!

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