The Year in PREview

Thanks to my artistic mother, I spent a good part of my childhood exploring thrift shops and antique stores. It seemed as though she needed to look at every item in every single store we visited. At times, I writhed in the pain of boredom; but, more often than not, I rejoiced in finding rare “treasures” with her. Discovering awesome items, from vintage 50′s circle skirts to antique post cards, slowly bore in me a love for revitalizing the use of  rejected items.

This past Thanksgiving I had the joy of visiting my folks in California and indulging in a “Girls’ Day Out” (as my mother so dubbed it 25 years ago). On our little venture, we visited a recently opened antique mall in my hometown. Walking through the cramped aisles rekindled the love inside me for re-purposing old things. 

I’m pretty sure that I want to devote a large part of next year’s blogging to finding and creating unusual pieces out of tossed materials. Whether it be functional creations or artistic explorations, I think it’s time to explore more opportunities to stop buying new and start saving old.

I believe that the hunt for the “right” pieces and the work that goes into the final up-cycled product is something that encourages a person to be more satisfied with an item rather than constantly feeling the need to buy, momentarily enjoy, and then crave to buy again. Let us not buy just for the sake of buying. Let ME not buy just for the sake of buying.

This leads to the severe conviction I have had lately about the plight of the poor, hungry, widowed and orphaned. How can a conscious decision to stop feeding my material cravings affect the lives of the “untouchables”? How can turning the old into the new help the poor? How can a selfless exploration into artistic endeavors give a voice to the voiceless? I hope to find out this coming year.

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