Monsters in Thrift Shop Paintings

The “Thrift Shop Painting Project” was conceived to bring a new perspective to old neglected paintings. The goal of art is to inspire the mind, to tell within it a story, persuade a new outlook, to rivet with amazement, or forge a new path of intellectual endeavor where there was none before. When a painting or object of art no longer captivates, it has all the decorative value of as spider web. What you see before you is a new story incapable of being told in the present without the efforts of a creative force in the past. These are not works brought back to life, they are the result of a wonderful metamorphous.

The impetus behind the Thrift Shop Painting Project was the numerous request The CLAW received from public institutions to provide an exhibit of the CLAW’s work. Talking amongst themselves the Talons of the CLAW found that few of their membership had art ready to present for a show. This lead to a discussion of gathering frames from thrift shops to present new work. This in turn led to the idea of using the canvas that came with the frame. It wasn’t much of a leap from there to decide that incorporating the previous image into the new work would be both unique, and exciting.

The exhibit premiered at Tacoma Arts Month Opening Party where AMOCAT Arts Awards were  presented by the Tacoma Arts Commission and Spaceworks Tacoma on October 2^nd, 2014. The paintings were well received and have since become a traveling show.  When not traveling the paintings can be seen at their home port: Tinkertopia. Interested parties who would like to offer their space as a venue may contact painting wrangler R.R. Anderson at Tinkertopia for scheduling.

Monsters in Thrift Shop Art Show Traveling History!

2018

• RED ELM CAFE – July, August
• Soaring Crane Bodywork – April, May, June
• Tinkertopia AUX Street Window Gallery – Winter

2017

• Paris, France – Winter

2016

• Tacoma Community College Library – December
• Feast Art Center – November
• 1120 Creative Community House – October
• The Swiss – September
• Tinkertopia – April – ??

2015

•  Tacoma Games – September-December
• Nearsighted Narwhal – May-August
• Destiny City Comics – March-April
• Metro Coffee – January-February
  

2014

• Bluebeard Coffee – November-December
  
• Tacoma Post Office – October

The CLAW has a very limited budget for creating this exhibit. The requirements were that the framed images be paintings, not prints. Also, the budget for purchasing a painting is $20 or less. The CLAW achieves this by buying some of the paintings in bulk. The proceeds of the sale of painting go back into the purchase of more paintings on which the artists might work to expand the exhibit. All of the paintings are for sale. As you can see from the before and after photos, many of the have sold. As the painting are sold new ones are added to the traveling exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

You can help the CLAW by donating your old landscape paintings to the project. You can drop them off or send them to Tinkertopia, 1914 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402.