Sal-Zar Medium

In 1986 I began experimenting on a way to produce images on paper that would withstand the elements, and that can be displayed without glass. I sought a medium that was non-yellowing, light fast, and non-photo chemically reactive. I looked for one that would be permanent, at least to the extent that I could determine. The Sal-Zar Mixed Media Medium seems to accomplish my goals.

In the Music Lesson, Katherine Webster’s principal character comments: “I hate glass…No painter I can think of ever intended his paintings to be viewed through a sheet of glass mounted a quarter of an inch above the painting surface…The public doesn’t know any better…Well what can I say? It’s the same public that has come to accept sex with condoms. The principals are quite similar.”

As a non-yellowing complicated new-age resin,  it is a poly-varnish in chemical composition. The medium works when painting oils, and as a final varnish. While you cannot use Sal-Zar with water media, you can use Sal-Zar to coat the water media and then apply oil on top. In this way the artist can create mixed media work that has the advantage of oils as a final coating.

I consider Sal-Zar to be a professional medium. I never believed it would be used by hobby artists and included in every little artist kit distributed internationally. I may not be able to preclude this from happening. But one way to deal with the misuse of the Medium, and to control its tribulation is to keep the composition secret. So, if a chemist says “I know what is in the Sal-Zar Medium.” I can say: “So what, no big deal. You can all take a flying f… at the moon!”