There is so much art out there. It amazes me what the human heart can achieve. I don't think artists ever ever expect their work to be abandoned. The goal of this blog is to document rescuing art out there, usually left in thriftstores or yardsales. The art is usually mishandled, something that drives me crazy.
I began to rescue art when I was in a Goodwill, hoping to find some awesome vintage shirt. I saw a beautiful painting--an orage butterfly, left over from the 1970's. There was a kitsch value to the work, but also something quite inspiring . It cost $50. I was there for a $5 shirt, not a painting. I decided to think about it. I returned the next day only to find that the store staff had stacked a bunch of paintings on it, badly denting the canvas. It was ruined. I kicked myself.
Since then, I've tried to save art whenever I can. I've driven to thriftstores, checked on craigslist--sometimes the last stop before a thriftstore--and bought it up.
I've managed to place over 20 paintings in good homes so far. By the way, I'm hoping to place the lovely painting above in a good home.
This was the scene at a local thriftstore. It was the end of the day and customers rummage through stuff. I've worked retail and know how hard it is to keep a store clean sometimes. The staff is simply overwhelmed. Unfortunately, art gets easily destroyed.
In that same store, I saw this interesting portrait of Rimbaud. It was still intact and handsomely framed. I snatched it up. I knew it would be only a matter of days before it would end up in the heap above.
This is Terrie. She heard about what I was doing through my sister Joy. Her father is dealing with cancer. She wanted some art to get through this this time in her life. She came over and secured two pieces. It really made me happy seeing her happy.
