A book that starts the conversation about ethical/vegan art

Mindful and Responsible Art Selection is the debut ebook by vegan sustainable artist Veronika Vegesent, who I met via the Vegan Business Tribe. It’s the first book I’ve encountered that talks about vegan and sustainable art and the importance of choosing it. I wasn’t sure when the book was published, but I’m guessing it was in 2023 or 2024.

I definitely call myself more of an art lover vs. expert and although I’m not a collector, I was curious to learn what supplies or techniques an artist could implement to ensure their art is vegan.

Highlights worth mentioning:

• Veronika was inspired by Aline Durr’s Vegan Interior Design, which I reviewed earlier this year.
• The thesis of the book is the art collector’s responsibility to promote sustainability and ethics by choosing art made with eco-friendly materials and techniques.
• Veronika shared 20 environmentally harmful art techniques, and I was left wondering what the solutions or alternatives were. Later, she covers potential materials, and mentions that you could recycle or upcycle art. She touched on non-vegan art supplies.
• She presented questions to ask while you’re researching art.
• She covered fair trade and responsible labour and how you can research artists and galleries with ethical or fair-trade principles and learn about the materials and production methods used and the labour practices involved in art.

Below is a screenshot of some items in the author’s art collection.

• The author gives examples of fair trade and sustainability affiliations.
• She touches on shopping local and engaging in local artists.
• She shares 10 ways to use ethical art to spark discussions.
• There are considerations for interior designers who work with clients to choose art.
• Veronika shares framing and display techniques, how to preserve and showcase sustainable art, problematic materials and safer alternatives, and using art as activism.
• She shares 10 certifications for galleries to consider, how you can minimize your art budget, and recycling or disposing of art.
• She ends the book with principles for working with ethical artisans, and measuring the impact of artists.

How this book could have been better

The author covers a lot of ground in this book, even though it’s only 79 digital pages. Similar to Desiree Dupuis’s Consciously Chic, there’s no copyright page, a sign of an amateur author (I made this mistake with my first book too!).

The author could have benefited from both a copyeditor and developmental editor, as it’s clear English isn’t her first language, and some of the overlapping information could have been closer together rather than spread apart in separate chapters.

Each chapter was called a “note,” not a chapter. While the book was well designed, the white text on coloured pages sometimes made it really hard to read. I always default to black on white.

For a book about art, there could have been way more examples, especially for recycled or upcycled art—what does a before and after look like? There were some gorgeous photos of the author’s own art, similar to how Dupuis only had examples of her own product in Consciously Chic. Authors should consider that showcasing others’ work can add another (free or inexpensive) method to market a book!

While non-vegan art materials were covered, I was left wondering what vegan art materials or supplies there were. I suppose everything else that was not mentioned on the non-vegan supplies list counts as vegan, but perhaps a list of the most sustainable art materials and supplies that are also vegan would help for the budding artist or those of us who are just art lovers and not experts.

I understand that this isn’t just a book about vegan art but selecting art mindfully and responsibly, but perhaps a separate chapter on veganism would have been helpful. I can’t be the only vegan who’s an art lover but unsure of what might not make a piece of art non-vegan.

Finally, the price of the ebook is a whopping €73, which is roughly US$80 or C$108. This might be an acceptable price for a large, hardcover, coffee-table-style book with impressive art in it, but I don’t see most readers buying an ebook at that price.

I just bought an ebook for C$35 (almost the same price for its hardcover), which is the highest price I’ve ever paid for an ebook. I really wanted to support the author and review the book here, so I made an exception.

If Mindful & Responsible Art Selection was priced more in that vein and the author produced a high-quality print version at the price the ebook is now, that would be reasonable.

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