Wrenby Art Homepage
A little bit about me...
I've been painting for around a decade and playing with mixed media for even longer.
I love textured rainbow inspired abstracts (a recurrent theme), non-traditional nudes, and
varied feminist, patriarchy smashing work.
I love visiting local art exhibits, and speaking with other artists
to figure out how to sustainably and eco-consciously continue creating meaningful work.
In my work you will find lots of bright colors, mixed media, intense love of women + genderqueer folx,
and pink. Always pink.
All proceeds from art sales go to support the D.C. Center for the LGBT Community
Recent Work
Close Up
Self Made Cage
Things I'd Rather Eat
Abstract A-II
6 Fuck You's
Creating Affordably and Sustainably
I do my best to make art in a way that balances cost with sustainability and eco-friendly practices. Luckily, there is a strong overlap between the two. Below are my tips for doing the same, with some resources to learn more.
Low Cost Ideas
- Canvases from goodwill. Goodwill is my favorite art supply store. Plus, painting over art is a time honored practice; make those art ancestors proud.
- Scavenge from dumpsters behind art supply stores. This is so much fun, and can be quite rewarding. Please be safe about it .
- Make your own stretched canvases. It is shockingly cheaper, unless you're using a very small canvas. If you're using a canvas bigger than 12x16 and have the energy to do minor sawing/sanding, I'd suggest looking into it .
- Embrace a multi-use mindset for materials. Frequently, marketing tries to say we need a particular paint or brush to complete a task. That is a lie. Want to paint on fabric? Try acrylic paint with fabric softener. Want to seal something you painted? Sure, you can go buy that expensive acrylic sealer, but I have 8 year old paintings that I sealed with Mod Podge that look fantastic.
- Find inexpensive replacements. I love doing textured work with acrylic from gaffrey. Drywall plaster from home depot has a similar effect, and if you coat it with mod podge afterwards, you can barely tell the difference.
Eco-Friendly Thoughts
- Paint is the largest source of microplastics by a longshot. I have to wash my paintbrushes somewhere, but I never rinse off my palette. I have two plastic ones I rotate (one is a real palette, the other is an old notebook cover). I let the paint dry before peeling it off and chucking it in the trash. This reduces potential microplastics entering my local water system.
- I don't give up on old paintbrushes. Letting them sit in boiling water sometimes works, there are paintbrush cleaning solutions at different craft stores, but I try to just stick to either boiling water with vinegar and baking soda, or using a teeny bit of goo gone. No need to purchase cleaner when you probably already own something that works.
- I don't throw things away. Potentially slightly to my detriment. Yarn scraps I use for multi-media pieces. Extra paint also gets used in multi-media pieces. Cardboard boxes are used as palettes, or painted over and covered in dry wall plaster to use as a base for some other wall hanging. I'm always looking at trash and thinking "how could I use this in an artistic way?" This leads to both challenging me as an artist, and saving yet another thing from a landfill (probably another great place to find materials).
Sometimes I splurge and get the expensive canvas with the expensive medium. Sometimes I'm in the middle of a flare up and forget not to wash my palette or brush. It's not about doing it perfectly (perfect is not sustainable), it's about doing what I can, when I can; and saving where I can.