Saturday, May 15, 2010

Quick Trip to Goodwill Leads to Art Mystery

The weather was cold and dark, so no garage sales were on the horizon. Instead, we chugged out to the Thorncliffe Goodwill. Here's what $30.00 bought me:

I don't usually buy art at thrift stores, because I seldom see anything that grabs me. I fell in love with these original hand-drawn pictures. If you look closely, you can see that they were carefully drawn with marker. Each picture was $6.99, signed by artist Ann Southam. Since this original post, I've discovered that Southam started out as a visual artist, but went on to some fame as a minimalist classical music composer. It could be a different Ann Southam, but it seems to make sense that a visual artist who is so obsessed with music theory would go on to become a full-time musician/composer. Now I want to find out more about her life and work.



Pictures from the late-seventies/early eighties.
Pop up book from the early eighties.


Great books for next year's class, or Duncan when he's a little older.
They were playing banal music from the eighties. I found solace in this Talk Talk CD, which has beautiful pop gems on it. I never had it in the eighties. Now it's mine.
For .79, I got this Made in Germany desk organizer. It was cheap and modular charming.
Paperclips and tacks will soon go in these little drawers.

7 comments:

  1. That art looks really cool. Love the books!

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  2. Wow, I had one of those little plastic organizers! It was a prize at my Grandpa's company picnic. Every child that came received a gift, and that was mine. Mine was red. Thanks for the memories!

    Nice art BTW!

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  3. I love the art, and it's cool you found out a bit about the artist! I remember somebody having one of those organizers back in the day.

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  4. I have that identical yellow organizer sitting on my desk right now. I have had it since 7th grade! I still use it after all these years.

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  5. Oh I remember that organizer quite well! I lusted after one, but my mom was more the recycled tin can type...

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  6. Those pictures are really cool, very unusual, LOVE the little organiser!

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  7. My MIL has one in red...she puts her bobby pins etc in it.

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About Me

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I'm a slightly off-beat Toronto-area teacher who enjoys writing and photography. I come from a family of collectors and now I'm dragging my own family around to yard sales. It's just a bit of fun. Enjoy the scenes.