Welcome to Art Chems

This website is created by an art student wanting to raise awareness about chemicals in the art field, more particularly paints.

We want to inform students about health and safety and encourage them to work around the art environment in a safe manner. After 3 years in art school, I have seen how disorderly it can be and I want to change that by providing this information to students and faculty.

Since oil painting is a big part of my life, I want make sure that while it’s a great medium to work with, it has precautions. My biggest concern in art school is the dumping of paints and solvents down sinks, which cause damage to our environment. We want to make sure that these regulations are properly met and not just overlooked, like it doesn't matter. There are a lot of people who simply disregard this information and use sinks to dump out turpentine and other hazardous material. Paint rags also have a special container, but are often thrown away in the garbage with paper.

The Art of Institute of Boston at Lesley University has a special container for painted rags and also a disposal area for solvents. I find that there are always people not using these who seem to be in a rush. I feel that we need to take the extra step in ensuring our own safety and those of others.

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