Artist Reception: Desiree Thompson

Local Art at The Mercantile

Join us on September 17 from 6-8pm for our Merc Home Gallery artist reception. The reception will be held at The Mercantile Home: 130 W White St.

About the Artist

I have always had a love for recycling and upcycling. Truth is, I hate when things go to waste. In America we have a huge problem of throwing amazing items out because of excess.

In 2019 our family moved into a newly constructed home. Walking the neighborhood watching new housing go up became a big part of our day, as we have children that are attracted to construction. Looking in the dumpsters at the discarded piles became part of those walks.

One of our sons is from Ethiopia and on more then one occasion I have looked at dumpster bins and cried because in Ethiopia EVERYTHING is used. All the excess wood would be used to build homes in other countries. And the collecting began.

I started making items from the excess wood. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t done it before, I wasn’t going to let perfectly good material go to waste. What was thrown away could be repurposed, reused, upcycled, reclaimed.

Reclaiming One Eighteen – The Name

In our household we believe in Jesus. We believe he came to restore us to Father God. We also know, from the Bible, that he was rejected. He was cast out and discarded. In Psalm 118:22 the bible says, “The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.” He is the cornerstone of our faith. One Eighteen is from this verse.

The rejected materials are the foundation of my art work. I wouldn’t have started without it because it wouldn’t have needed to be reclaimed. Each piece I make has been reclaimed. Once destined for the dump now stunning and beautiful.

This idea also carries over to life. We are all in the process of being reclaimed. None of us finished. I believe that broken things can be made new.