Justin James Reed on 20x200

© Justin James Reed

Money is tight these days; budgets are being calculated, shopping has been suspended, and while I've always been pretty frugal, we're still having to look at our habits and tighten our belts. I did have the happy chance this morning of driving by a dresser with an ugly coat of paint but excellent bones that someone had left on the curb for bulk refuse; I stopped and loaded it into my minivan and when I find some extra time (ha!) I plan on stripping and refinishing it, possibly going so far as to hand-paint some sort of rustic, folk-art type design on the drawers. But I digress...

All of this is my long way of saying that despite the poor economy, sometimes you find a free dresser on the street and realize that with the money you might have spent on a piece of furniture you could instead put $20 toward something else, something beautiful. For me that beautiful thing was a print by my friend Justin James Reed--two of his images are now available for purchase on 20x200, and trust me, these are going to appreciate in value. I'll tighten the belt, but not so much that I can't have some frankly affordable art on my walls to admire for years to come.