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No matter what, I could be sure safety was taken into consideration when working with Kay. This is

something I think would be good for other artists to practice as well. Kay always talked to be about

toxicity of materials, of their grading levels, and that she had nothing above the second least toxicity

level in her studio (the vegetable-based screen cleaner that I talked about using with screen

reclaiming in the last post). This is something that she was in touch with when working as an

educator, in addition to her own persona interest in a green artistic practice, life, and world.

In addition to being conscious about chemical safety, Kay would always be sure I had personal

protective equipment if I was doing anything that posed a risk. While reclaiming screens, I used

gloves, eye protection, and ear protection. Any time I used Kay’s armature wire, I had to have gloves

on due to some chemical that California declared as dangerous when handled with bare skin. I also

used safety glasses when using wire, just in case it whipped around. Even though at times it felt a bit

excessive, Kay’s no-BS attitude for safety precaution is something I really respect. Besides the

interest in keeping an intern safe for her own sake, Kay feels the tough-guy lack of interest in

personal safety is not worth it in the end for whatever vanity reasons fuel it in the first place. Artists

ultimately pay for their use of noxious materials with lack of protection in painful ways, that can even

affect working ability.

Twisting armature wire with a drill means safety considerations

I feel analyzing the toxic nature of the materials we use as artists is important. I think this for

ourselves as artists, our audiences, and the environment it will be returning to ultimately probably as

trash. This is another aspect of art I feel I connect with Kay on. She has considered this waste, this

huge amount of materials artists frequently supply landfills with. Kay has used clay, paper and

wheatpaste, and fabric to fight toxic waste in her work. She reuses stuffing from old pieces, and

recycles clothing and other fabric scraps in work.

Here I am with arms that have armature wire inside for structure. It was interesting to witness

structure in fabric like that, simple as it was I don’t know that I’d even considered using it myself

before then in that way. Using fabric seemed more and more feasible in my work as I saw the

different ways Kay used the material.