Drawing on his personal experience as a visual artist, the author presents insights and opinions on a range of topics from aspects of the packaging and presentation of art - which are sometimes foreign to the artist and what he or she is making in the studio - to society's preoccupation with preservation. When actually at work in the studio, he is unaware of sound technical process as would be a more spontaneous painter but, by chance, his process is reasonably sound and his work seems to be standing up from a structural, technical point of view. A number of practical aspects of the choice of materials from the artist's student days at Mount Allison university and the Glasgow School of Art are related. The curator and conservator have a three-fold responsibility: to the artist, to the public- past, present and future - and to the object. A number of personal experiences with conservation and restoration of his own work are described. We have to determine what preservation of art objects is directed toward, and what should be preserved, and for how long. Because the author does his own work under bright, fluorescent light he finds it unacceptable the fact it is usually displayed with inappropriate lighting. If artists wish to have their work displayed in bright light, that is part of their perogative, and they have the right to insist that any other display is to some extent a misrepresentation.