Vegan Art
I somehow roped myself into running the art portion of the Vegetarians of Central Florida Earth Day Festival as a favor for my friend Anna. I talked to the guy who was running the festival as a whole and he told me to make sure all the art was "vegan". It was then that it occured to me: Art is not a vegan hobby. Traditional painting grounds start with a rabbit skin glue base, all good brushes are made of animal hair, encaustic paints are made from beeswax, tempera is egg based, leather chamois are traditionally used to blend charcoal etc... lets not even get into fiber arts. Now I've been a vegetarian for 11 years now, but veganism still eludes me. It seems that vegans would prefer to use lower quality laboratory made alternatives then use high quality, natural, historically proven, but animal-based art materials. I can't say I get it. But then again, I have no qualms wearing leather, as long as it's second hand. Waste not, want not!