Ever hear of a Garage Sale with Nothing But Art Supplies? Me Either!

 A stack of magazines I picked up for a song!

We've all been to our share of garage sales over the years, but when I heard La Mesa artist, Lisa Bebi, was having one with nothing but cast off art supplies -- I jumped for joy! Plus, she found two other artists to join her -- bonus!

 Lisa's garage ready to go. This pic and the next two came from her blog.

Lisa has been an artist all of her life and this was the first major overhaul of her art studio. It got so full of cool art stuff, that she uses her dining room table to paint. Please visit her blog to see some of the inspired mixed media art work she does.

Since Lisa does mixed media, she has all sort of ephemera, books, papers, brushes, pens, glues, mediums, rubber stamps, ink pads and more.

 The sale started today at 8 am. The early bird gets the worm and I didn't arrive until 8:30. The woman pictured below got there first and bought a ton of stuff, including ALL of the rubber stamps, ink pads and a giant box of magazines. I didn't see what else she picked up, because I had to hurry and find my own treasures before she bought everything!

The smart shopper (l) and Lisa (r).

Here are a few of the boxes she loaded into her car! She filled up those two empty ones and more.

She bought almost everything on that table!

I started in the ten cents an item section and selected some old issues of Art Forum, Art in America, a book of colored paper and the only Stampington magazine the other woman didn't buy. It was in the bargain bin, because it was missing its cover.

I bought a slew of gel pens for 20 cents each, a glue stick, a roll of raised tape and a zipper bag for the pens -- for a dime each. The partially used tubs of Golden mediums, the bag of acrylic paints and the bottle of ink were in the quarter box. 

I picked up 24 sheets of scrap book paper for $2, plus a pack of white envelopes, some smaller papers and a roll of sheer paper for my collage's and card making.

I'm new to adding fabric to my artwork, so I really don't own much. Kathy Olson sold me that whole box of fibers and ribbons for $5. The individual pieces of fabric in front of the box were $1 each.

Kathy Olson

More of Kathy's items for sale.

I ran into two of my artist friends, Diane (l) and Hilari (r).

We poured over the wonderful selection of colored pens!

Here's Bet and Hilari checking out some of the books for sale.

Believe it or not, Lisa is not yet finished cleaning out her art studio. She still needs to sort through more of her books and vintage papers. You know I'll be there for that gARTage sale too!

I would love to see this as the beginning of a new trend. I know many artists who are also in the midst of spring cleaning, so maybe we could have more group garage sales in San Diego. In fact, why limit it to San Diego? 

Why not start a nationwide trend and get artists together, who are committed to stamping out clutter from their homes and art studios and have them team up and sell their art supplies to other artists and craftsmen?! Are you game?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this idea. Please leave me a comment below. Thanks for stopping by! ~NR~

Something I made in one of Lisa's Paint-Over Style workshops in San Diego, CA 2009.