Unfortunately, I do love…not using my best art supplies
A playful trend, guilty pleasures, and the silly habit of hoarding the good stuff for someday.
There’s a new viral trend on TikTok and Instagram called “Unfortunately I do love.” Have you seen it?
It basically has people listing out their guilty pleasures, from cancelling plans to preferring to stay indoors and read, maxing out their credit card, and making Pinterest boards for everything.
That got me thinking about what my guilty pleasures would be, but from an artist’s lens. An “Unfortunately I do love” artist edition, if you will. I shared a short list on Instagram, which you can see below, with a shot of my messy painty table.
And while it is a bit of silliness, and I will defend our collective right to indulge in guilty pleasures now and then, it’s also true that some of our choices, especially if they become habitual, can be rather questionable.
I will admit to having maxed out my credit card a time or two, but if that becomes a habit, a reality check is needed, ce n’est pas1?
Looking over my list of guilty pleasures, the ones that strike me are the ones related to buying supplies and never — or rarely — using them.
I have a small, precious collection of Golden fluid acrylics that I’ve been treating like the Queen’s diamonds: to be admired but never worn {or in this case, used}. I tell myself things like:
They’re so expensive…and so hard to get here in India2…
Am I good enough at my art to use, like, the golden standard of artist grade acrylics?
Wouldn’t it be a waste to use Golden paints in an art journal?3
And those little bottles sit pretty on my painty table…admired, but otherwise gathering dust.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is guilty of not using my “precious” art supplies. I’ve heard many artists and creatives say similar things.
We do this, also, with the too-good-for-every-day-use crockery, or the too-pretty-to-wear clothes, or the scented candles we buy and rarely light.
But life is short, so why let those beautiful things gather dust? Use those fancy supplies, light those candles, use that precious crockery set! Perhaps that’s what it means to romanticize your life: to enjoy the beautiful things now, not save them up for some day.
I may not break out my Golden paints for my next art journal spread, but I am planning to start a new canvas soon, and you can bet that I’ll pull them out then!
What about you? Do you have art supplies {or candles, or crockery} waiting to be used ‘someday’? Maybe ‘someday’ starts today!
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Look at me, showing off my barely remembered high school French!
My sister had carried a few bottles of Golden fluid acrylics and a box of QOR watercolors, which are still lying pristine in their box, on one of her visits back home from the US. The Golden range is now available at one outlet {that I know of} around 60 kms from my house, at a rather extortionate rate.
But, dear reader, my art journal is my biggest art practice. I rarely paint on canvas or wood or even on paper.
🌻🌺🪻❤️
Unfortunately I do love buying a whole bunch of notebooks and then never using them all.