Living Ink Paintings.

Back in 2019, inspired by the book Make Ink by Jason Logan, I began making my own inks from kitchen scraps, plants, and elements. My work has always been focussed on using natural and sustainable materials, so the idea of creating my own paints and inks from organic matter really intrigued me. I began practicing making ink, playing with them, and learning how they work. Inks are not like your standard acrylic or watercolor paint that are consistent in their color and nature.

These organic paints are completely unique to the plant, the way the ink is made, and the elements you add to them. Inks can also be shift and alter over time as they age. So the ink can even change from the time it is made to a few weeks later. These inks have no preservatives, stabilizers or synthetic binders. To keep them fresh and avoid mold, I add cloves and wintergreen oil and even still some need to be kept cold in the fridge to keep them from going bad.

I also have a couple inks that were created from copper and rusty nails. Copper and Iron inks are made from soaking copper bits or rusty nails in vinegar and salt for weeks to create a solution. These along with other elements like baking soda, vinegar, alum and milk paint base can be used to modify the ink and create a new color. This bit of alchemy creates a wide range of colors from which to chose from.

All the materials were collected locally in Utah or found in my kitchen from scraps. Inks include the following:

Avocado
Beardtongue Penstemon
Cabbage
Cherry
Chokecherry
Copper
Dyer’s Woad
Iron
Mulberry
Oregon Grape
Pecan
Rabbit Brush
Red Onion Skin
Yellow Yarrow