I bumped into one of my thrift store buddies today at this one shop I like to go to. At one point, she noticed a painting sitting high up on a shelf and asked me if I could grab it down for her. Happily, I did so.
 
In checking it out, she noticed a few flaws/scratches in the paint.
 
That’s the problem with thrift store art. Sometimes the people donating it or the staff just don’t take care of the art piece, respecting the art, and doing their job with some level of perfection. Thus, paintings get damaged.
 
I checked it out, studied the canvas, and stuff. It was a nice piece. An old-school landscape, painted by an artist operating from a mature perspective. From examining the canvas, it looked to be from the late 1940s or early 1950s. Unsigned.  
 
In terms of the scraping, I told her that sometimes when I have purchased thrift store art, I have had to touch the art up. It’s no biggy. In fact, I like to do it. Break out the oils and match the colors just perfectly. I guess I should have been an art restorer. But, too late now.
 
We both noticed that the stretcher bars and the front of the canvas had, what looked to be, drilled holes in three points. Don’t know what that was all about? Maybe someone just screwed it into the wall? Sad, really. Killing a piece of art like that.
 
So, here’s the question, how caringly do you take care of your art? How well do you take care of the art of others? Do you even care about it? Do you care that the piece of art was inspired, envisioned, and then created with all of the process it took to bring that piece of art into reality? Or, do you just like or dislike it? Maybe toss it in a bin to be donated? Let it get scraped up. Or, worse yet, drilled, and screw into the wall.
 
I think it’s sad the way some people treat art. There it was this painting that was very well done, painted decades ago. Now, just being uncared for.
 
My thrift store buddy, she decided not to go for it, with the what looked to be drilled holes. I get it. Scrapes in the paint I can touch up. Touch up so no one would ever know they happened. I would have been happy to have done that for her. Holes drilled in and through the canvas, however, that’s a different story. That’s a hard fix.
 
This is all just something for you to think about. How do you treat art? Really, how do you treat art? No matter what type or style that art is? If all you do is judge it, maybe use it, then toss it away, caring not what happens to it, what does that do to the heart of the artist, the creators that they have made? And, even more importantly, what does that do to the entire landscape of art? The place where much of the beauty of this life is humanly created?
 
If you’re an artist, you probably immediately get what I’m talking about. If you’re not?
 
Art is art, no matter what form it takes. All works of art should be treated with respect.
 
Think about it.