January 23rd is the 20th anniversary of my purchase of Wet
Paint from Hugh Huelster. In 1984 it seemed like I would be
the new kid on the block, Grand Avenue-wise, art store-wise, forever.
Now Wet Paint is one of the old established businesses in this part
of St. Paul and in the world of art materials.
Many things have changed during this time but one thing hasn’t: I still love art supplies. Show me a beautiful sheet of handmade
paper, a well-crafted brush, a juicy tube of paint and I can still get
all choked up. Tell me the story of who and how they are made and I’m
hooked. Our biggest problem has always been to find space for
all the great art materials available for our creative customers.
Unfortunately, I now see rising problems regarding the availability
and the integrity of quality product. Companies are now part of large
corporate conglomerates. Sales of art supplies are compared to sales
of general consumer products. Art supplies are discontinued because
they don’t sell well enough. Schwan Stabilo has
made the decision to stop manufacturing the majority of their fine and
graphic arts products: Stabilotone, Softcolor, Aquatico, Layout
Markers, 68 Pens and Micro Graphite. All-Stabilo Pencils and Carbothello Pastel Pencils will be their only remaining
“art supplies.”
Products originally made by understanding artisans are now sourced
out, often to Asia. Kolo, a fine line of American-made
photo scrapbooks, has their newest products made in China. We see products
that look okay, but art supplies are not just to look at. The functionality
can be “lost in translation.” It may look like a canvas,
but can you put paint on it? Will the paint adhere? Will there still
be paint on a canvas 20 years from now? In the race to get it made the
cheapest we lose the artisanship and the heart of the materials.
Product development is being skewed by the systems requirements of
big box stores. An example of this is the ColorMates line of 81/2x11” papers. ColorMates has proven to be extremely
popular with customers of every ilk, who’ve responded well to
this line of gradated tints and hues (like you can achieve by mixing
paint). Unfortunately, this paper is now produced in an 81/2x111/4”
size to accommodate a printed description and bar code, giving the customer
the chore of cutting the bar code off each sheet. That’s fine
for the one-sheet-at-a-time customer, but what about the customer who
wants fifty or 250 sheets? Large (chain) stores require bar codes, even
on sheets of paper, or else they won’t stock the product.
The delivery of fine quality product to you, our customers, isn’t
as easy as you may think. We have vendors who believe if you barcode
and mass merchandise art supplies at a lower price, everyone will want
them. Unfortunately, if they don’t work, no one will ever want
them again. If the brush makes a lousy stroke, if the paint color fades,
if the paper has a gummy spot in the middle of a drawing, nothing will
be of museum quality, no one will buy art, no one will make art.
With your help, Wet Paint will continue for another 20 years
to support manufacturers and vendors who make materials that work and
that will last for you, our customers, the visual artists.
