My 7th Grade Science Club yearbook photo, 1999. Jefferson Davis Middle School.
We resell, make art, collect curios, and hunt for vintage for its history and singularity. Vintage has soul, a story to excavate. Story is a pivotal part of Thrift Core, and it's about time I've revealed another layer on why I'm excessively passionate about art and creativity. This may be your story, too.
My parents were raised growing food and creating, my dad in the tiny tropical town of Ponce, Puerto Rico and my mom in a latino barrio on the mean, sunny streets of South Cali. Growing up my dad made computers, my brothers and I read comics and drew, and my mom thrifted, dumpster dived, and crafted. Making clay pots, memorizing the color wheel, and assembling tissue paper collages in my Naples, Italy elementary school transported me to a zen zone of perfect contentment. Being a thrifty maker is who I am down to my DNA, it's inescapable.
I've made dozens of websites since 6th grade. Wish I could find them!
Traveling back to the USA I ended up in the Duval County school system, one of the worst in Florida's already tarnished educational reputation. My passion for research and creativity continued. I was in science club and convinced Scotty's Hardware to sponsor a butterfly garden on school grounds. I started working on websites between 6th and 7th grade and was instantly hooked, I'd work into the early morning hours on my Pokémon and anime websites.
All I could find of the embarrassing, inevitably hundreds of drawings that helped me survive school.
But each year chipped away at my happy-go-lucky nerd girl exterior. I attended Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, an F-Rated school named after a KKK leader despite over 60% of the students being minorities. Lexile reading tests concluded the overall student body had a fourth grade reading level and my freshman class bought the largest influx of students the school had ever encountered. The jaded school Principe let us degrade into a primitive society, Lord of the Flies style. Desks were first-come-first-serve until the chaos settled down a bit and more teachers were hired. The tableau etched in my mind of high school is like a battleground, there were constant fights and projectiles to dodge. Food. Shoes. Books. Hair weave. Luckily no condoms in the hallways though, those were scattered outside in the courtyard.
I have a dark sense of humor, but it's not as gallows as it was in High School!
Despite the fun I had with friends, I look back on my years at Forrest High as creatively stiffing. I stopped being an activist and was generally apathetic. I did improve on drawing when I couldn't focus in class, at least! I haven't had that kind of spare time to draw since. I'd like to think high school didn't traumatize me, but I still have nightmares of being forced to return to it to this day because I missed a credit somewhere! Had it again last night!
Polaroids of the pinatas we used to make in Naples, Italy. I can still make one from scratch.
My time at Forrest hindered creativity, but once I was liberated I found my tribe. The damn was unplugged and creativity flowed with abundance. It was blocked up for so long, now I can't stop it. And selling vintage allows me to express my love of writing, story telling, art, history and art.
I've experienced extreme ignorance from my school system, and sincerely believe art classes and constructive activities would have saved so many kids. When I was trying to determine a bigger mission for my brand it comes right back to high school and the creative programs they lacked. I want to help others realize their potential. I don't want people to waste time on bullshit they don't care about. Life's too short to do anything else but what really matters.
I've experienced extreme ignorance from my school system, and sincerely believe art classes and constructive activities would have saved so many kids. When I was trying to determine a bigger mission for my brand it comes right back to high school and the creative programs they lacked. I want to help others realize their potential. I don't want people to waste time on bullshit they don't care about. Life's too short to do anything else but what really matters.
What drives you to create? Tell me your creative origin stories or embarrassing school day stories!
