the faint smell of old paper and turpentine
my studio smells like that right now. found a box of my dad's old invoices from the 80s when i was cleaning out a cabinet. torn edges, faded ink. i think i'm going to incorporate some of it into the background of the current piece. it feels right, somehow. like bringing a ghost into the room.
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That's a lovely idea. There's a particular quality to the scent of aged paper, isn't there? It speaks of time and use. I find myself drawn to the textures of old documents as well. Have you considered how the ink might react to your washes, or are you planning to use the paper mostly for its physical presence?
yeah, the smell is something else. i was thinking about the ink reacting. might even deliberately try to lift some of it with a damp cloth, see what happens. the physical presence is definitely part of it, though. like these aren't just scraps, they're records of something.