Keeping Your Health in Mind

Today I'm kind of revisiting some of my earlier posts about keeping yourself in mind and setting up shop. It is all too easy to take our health for granted until we become sick. Many artists don't consider their health as much as they probably should. Some even consider health insurance to be a luxury or something that you work another job to get. (Artists can get on a group health insurance plan through many organizations, such as Fractured Atlas.) And some artists also regard retirement as unnecessary because we all hope to be able to work on our art forever and cannot imagine ever giving it up. But what if our health forces us to do so, disabling us from doing what we love?

Mostly, I wanted to use this blog post to remind other artists to take their materials into consideration. A lot of artists work with a lot of known carcinogenic materials and media that can be damaging with prolonged exposure. And some materials which are thought to be safe are actually later determined to be hazardous; artists who are at the forefront, working with new media and technology, can inadvertently expose themselves to harmful substances without even knowing what effect those substances will have because the research isn't complete yet. Many artists have died from working with the materials that they love, notably including Eva Hesse and Niki de Saint Phalle.

Always always always make certain that you're working with adequate ventilation. Just because something does not smell or have a chemical odor doesn't mean that it's safe! Don't forget that with increased exposure to such smells, we can get used to them and become unaware of them. This is true of animal hoarders living with dozens upon dozens of cats - after a time they cannot smell the urine and feces that accumulates. It is also true of artists who spend a lot of time in poorly ventilated studios - they may not even be able to smell their media anymore! Fans are good, open windows are good, face masks and breathing apparatus are good (especially with anything that generates a fine mist or dust, like charcoal, graphite, airbrushing, woodworking...). We breathe enough pollutants just from living where we live, especially if we live around cities or agricultural and/or industrial centers, so we should do everything we can to reduce our exposure to other airborne contaminants.

Also, make sure to avoid skin contact with substances that can be easily absorbed. If you do come in contact with such a substance, try to clean it up immediately. Don't wait until you're done with what you're doing - you could forget about it over the next three or four hours spent working away. Try to keep your studio space relatively clean to avoid coming into contact with such things near so often. A well-used studio shouldn't be immaculate, but it shouldn't be a pigsty either. It is a good habit to spend some time daily cleaning up and putting things away, perhaps when wrapping things up in the studio for the day. (This is something that I need to take to heart myself, as I have a tendency to leave things out and about until I am done with them entirely and sometimes even beyond that.)

Many artists just don't respect their materials as much as they should, taking both their media and their health for granted. We soon forget just how much exposure we are having to said substances because we can all too easily lose track of time while working on our art. It is easy to think, "Oh, I only need to glue this one little thing - what harm can that do?" But before we know it, we've spent four hours in the studio working on an uncooperative piece, trying to simply glue that "one little thing". So try to have some consideration for whatever you are working with, because you may be exposed to it a lot more than you are even aware of.