Twenty-five cast off paintings from thrift stores were resurrected as “Monster Paintings” at Main Street Books on Friday night. Bryan Gladden, a regular customer at the store, suggested the concept after seeing similar painting projects online, and the store staff embraced the idea.
The premise is that people purchase a painting from a thrift shop and then paint a monster into the image.
The bookstore invited anyone interested to participate and asked that the painting be dropped off a day in advance. “We’ve never had a response quite like this to any of our other events,” said Llalan Fowler, store manager.
Among the twenty-five donated paintings were contributions by people who normally don’t submit work for art exhibitions. Ginger Rose lives in Cleveland and learned about the exhibition through a Facebook post.
“This is the first time I’ve ever shown my art,” said Rose. Her painting was originally a mass-produced image of Giants stadium, but she inserted monsters on the field as well as in the crowd. Rose has actually been painting for some time, but this exhibition was just the motivation she needed to share her work for the first time.
Some of the artists chose to mimic the style of the original artist, thus causing the monster to blend in with the work, while others chose to create a sharp contrast with their monster. Whatever stylistic choices were made, one thing was clear, the exhibition was equally fun for the artists and the visitors.
The bookstore was filled with people reveling in the quirky artwork. Monster paintings strip all the pretension from the art experience leaving behind pure fun.
“It’s very whimsical. We have a lot of talented people with a lot of imagination. The monsters added a surreal quality to otherwise boring paintings,” said Drew Shifley, a bookstore patron who attended the event.
The paintings will remain on view at Main Street Books until the end of the month.
