Cadmium is Kind of Poisonous but Not Enough to Matter

I've started painting again. I'm not sure why. It called out to me or something. I'm a little rusty, but not insurmountably so. I seem to be picking up (and leaning on) where I last left off. Thus far the new stuff shows little promise, but it is fun to do and meaningful for me personally to push the paint around on a canvas.

When I was at the art store last week, which for me is usually Arts and Craftsman on 3rd and Market St, I bought $140 in paints and brushes. That's not really so many art supplies as one might imagine. (I often miss working in an art supply store, but computers pay a whole lot better.)

I picked up a few Princeton Art and Brush Co. synthetic bristle brushes. The larger filberts are great, but the number 16 flat is totally awful. It splits in at least 5 places, no matter what I do. I don't know if you can return crap bushes to the store on the grounds the craftsmanship sucks. It seems like you should be able. They're defective, afterall.

I feel bad about the idea of harassing art store salespeople (my blood brothers and kin for life) because Princeton Art and Brush Co. fabricated a crap brush. I'm thinking of contacting the manufacturer directly. It really is an awful brush. They should be ashamed to have their label on it.

The other mistake I made was buying a 59ml tube of titanium white. What kind of starter kit buys the small tube of white? Seriously. I totally should have known better. The correct thing to do would have been to buy two or three of the cheapest, largest tubes of titanium white I could find, or, even better, a bucket of the stuff. Seriously, a 59ml of titanium white? Eejit.

On the upside, I can still twirl a paint brush like a drumstick and paint with both hands.