My grandma is a self-taught artist, starting in the 1960s painting oils on canvasses my grandfather built her by hand. She has hundreds of paintings downstairs in her basement, just waiting for someone to love on them and hang 'em up.
I pilfer the basement frequently, and long ago, came up with this white-on-black velour 15X16 painting. I had it hanging in my apartment during college, and my first home here in Paducah. Once we moved to the new place, it needed some severe TLC.
The velour paper has not held up very well, and some of the paint is woefully starting to flake off. First attempts at getting the painting custom-framed were thwarted when Michael's was ready to charge me $100, and that was bare bones and with 50 percent off (it would have looked amazing, but I wouldn't have been able to afford to eat dinner for weeks).
So, I compromised and bought a $30 frame (with coupons, of course). The only problem is the frame is 12X16.
I fretted for a while, debating the merits and faults of cropping my grandma's original art. Then I remembered where I found the painting in the first place: the basement. A straight-edge and an X-acto knife later, and I had a much improved piece of art.
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