Let's Go Op-Shopping!

Thrift shops are called opportunity or op-shops in Australia, I did not know that. And I also did not know of the marvelous things that can be found and shared, so the Shopkins-Fossick blog was educational, indeed. I learned that shabby sheiks can be shabby chic, pig parts are different down under, and they like to make scary puppets that are the Anti-McDonalds there.

BEWARE THE THRIFT SHOP CAT PAINTING!

From the Baikinange Collection

Valentino painting

I'm a big fan of thrift store art, the fruits of the labors of well-meaning but often talent-starved artists. I was lucky enough to find a few charmingly bad paintings at an estate sale some years back, and have displayed them proudly for years (much to the chagrin of my loved ones). I paid a buck each for them, maybe you think I was robbed.




A cut above the typical thrift store fare (meaning, I paid somewhat more than a buck for it) is this circus painting by Illinois artist Louise Woodroofe.


Apparently Louise was quite a pistol. She had a backstage pass to Ringling Brothers circus for years, and spent much of her life as an art professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and died at a ripe old age (over 100). A short history of the life and art of Louise Woodroofe can be found here.