A few days after Dad died I started an online art course which ended up helping me enormously as I worked through the initial stages of grief (if you can call it that).
The course was a three week intensive program with Sundays off to catch up. I was very much in the moment as I went through each day. I didn’t think to take notes of the complicated processes we were being taught. I simply did the work, engaged with the online community and worked my way into a different life without my Dad.
When the classes ended and I wanted to revisit what I had done for some of my own projects, I realised I had no recollection of what I needed to do. And I had no notes. Doh!
So lesson learned. All online classes are now approached differently.
The other thing I learned is that it is important to have the right materials. But there are the right materials and there are the right materials. Some things are important for brand and model, others not so much.
So, I have embarked on a second course with this same artist, Esté Macleod, a hero. For this one I have come unstuck with materials.
She has given us a very specific list. In it there is a specialty paper we need with which we will collage. We are told the brand and the size. Unfortunately this specialty paper is not available for purchase in Australia. So I ordered it from the UK with extra postage, so there was just enough time for it to arrive before the course started. When the paper didn’t come I looked into where it might be, and discovered an inexplicable 16 day delay in dispatch which meant it won’t arrive until the course is almost over.
Now this specialty paper is not specifically an art supply, it is a deli wrap. Not polythene, like they use here, but something they use in the UK. As I wasn’t exactly sure what they use in the UK I didn’t want to source anything other than what was specified because I didn’t want to use the wrong thing. So I placed an order for ANOTHER lot of deli paper, specifically for collage, from another offshore supplier in case it would get here sooner. There is none here in Australia.
All the while I am watching the classes, taking the notes, seeing the progress people are making and suffering badly from FOMO. So I decided to try a number of other options JUST IN CASE.
Tissue paper was too thin and fell to bits. Tracing paper, too stiff.
And then I found Coles Greaseproof Sandwich Wrap 30m for $1.39. If it isn’t exactly the same as Logan’s Deli Wrap (what I’m having shipped from the UK) I will eat my hat. And it costs PEANUTS!
I’ve forked out all this money on international shipping etc and had all this stress and worry and FOMO and any money you like the product was right there, all the while, on the supermarket shelf for next to nothing. I just didn’t know it.
It really pays to know your onions in this art caper. Papers are so tricky. There are papers and papers always but in this case. ARGH!!!