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Today I have a tale to tell, a bit of a cautionary tale. Some details I hesitate to divulge as I can imagine some artists will gasp in horror when I do. Some will accuse me of being an uncultured oaf. But, I digress.
A few days ago I was doing a little thrift store browsing with my girlfriend in one of our local Goodwill stores and I headed to the art section. Yes, there is an art section at the Goodwill stores, as there is in just about any thrift store you go into. They usually have shelves upon shelves of discarded paintings and prints of various sizes and shapes. I can spend quite some time going through these "treasures."
Am I trying to find some discarded Andrew Wyeth masterpiece or a long lost Van Gogh? Well, that would be nice, but no, my search is for something a little more down to earth. I am searching for frames that can be used for my own artwork and in some cases, I will look at canvases that aren't too heavily textured. I can hear the screams of "BLASPHEMER!" coming from all corners of the world. How could I possibly think of destroying another artist's work of art to create my own? Well, it happens. Especially when I find a nice 48"x48" canvas with some gaudy painting that looks like a reject from a junior high school art class. When the canvas can be bought for about five dollars and it is in good condition, I consider it manna from heaven allowing me to go large without spending over a hundred dollars on a pre-stretched canvas.
And the frames I've found have been used in many of my pieces of art. You can't imagine some of the frames I've found, frames that would cost large sums of money that can be had for just a few dollars. I found a brand new, still in plastic wrap, 16x20 frame a couple of weeks ago, that was in the thrift store bin because it had been dropped and the finish on the backside have chipped and flaked off. So, I bought it for four dollars, took it home and spread a small amount of epoxy across the chip and then painted the backside of the frame with black acrylic. It looks brand new and for four dollars and a few minutes work I picked up a frame that cost close to $70.00 in the art store.
Now, where does the cautionary tale come in? This last trip to the thrift store netted me two VERY nice frames that I thought would make excellent frames for some future pieces of art. These were two very nice, carved wood frames that were a matched set. And the great thing about it was that there were two paintings already in the frames, that weren't highly textured and would make great canvases for me. The paintings were nice, but nothing special in my eyes.
As I walked up to my girlfriend with frames in hand, she asked what I had. I explained to her that I had two nice frames and canvases to do some paintings on. When she saw the paintings she gasped in horror, "You blaspemer!" At that very second I knew that my treasures were no longer mine.
To make a long story short, those two paintings are now hanging, untouched by my sacrilegious hands, in our bedroom, laughing at me every time I walk by them. And my girlfriend has made it quite clear that I will NEVER paint over them.
From now on, I go thrift store shopping alone!
