Mitch O'Connell's stupendously eldritch thrift store art collection

Artist Mitch O'Connell says:

Bad? Not really, I think they're so interesting and mesmerizing that I shelled out the big bucks (usually around $20) to have them hang on the walls of the M.O'C Manor. Btw, I've already willed everything to The Art Institute of Chicago, so don't waste your time throwing money at me in the hopes of prying any of these treasures from my grip.

It's Connie Dobbs!

This one is actually really great.

Bad Art! The most amazingly weird, wild and wacky paintings you'll ever see!

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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RedShirt77

Talk to a lawyer about making prints of that third one. That should be required decor in all golf course bars.
- http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
  
  Or at the very least golf course bathrooms. They could replace the “Charged with a DUI? Call our law firm and we’ll have you out by happy hour” advertising that currently hangs over the urinals.
  
  (I’m sorry to say I’m not making that up.)
  - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
    
    I wonder if the country club valets are tipped anything extra for having to do the breathalyzer test to start all their cars for them.
  - RedShirt77
    
    I think that guys face has the perfect, “why did I just do that to myself?” expression that we have all had at one point or another.
    - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
      
      aka the Cinnabun eyes.
James Mason

For a minute I thought it was Mitch McConnell. Serious WTF moment.
- http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger
  
  Had the same moment.
- http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
  
  Had the same moment. Loved you in Stanley Kubrick’s “Lolita”, by the way.
- http://www.facebook.com/aelfscine Jon Bakos
  
  Yep, got me too.
- franko
  
  right there with ya. i was thinking, “ok, politically he may drive me nuts, but who knew he was cool enough to be THAT into thrift store paintings?”
sdmikev

This collection is amazing. I can’t tell if it’s the sum total that make it awesome, or if the majority of the paintings are just plain great in their own way. Maybe a combination of the two.
orwell

soon to be a traveling art show viewable at your local gas station bathroom…
orwell

could we see more and offer up a “naming/title,” contest?
nixiebunny

We have an actual book called “Thrift Store Paintings” that features over 100 of these treasures. Came from Powell’s used; seriously out of print.

Some decades ago, one of our friends kept commenting on a seriously bad painting that he called “the green Arab” that hung on the wall behind the counter of the local Value Village with an absurd $80 price tag. He kept at it so long that we finally took up a collection among ourselves and bought it for him for his birthday.
http://twitter.com/richXXIII Richard Lindsay

For an (admittedly talented) artist whose whole career was started by some carefully studied, cloying and derivative pop culture memes, it sort of seems grating and condescending to see him display other people’s ‘bad art’ attempts.
Maybe it’s just me.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  He bought these paintings and they are hanging on his walls. I think he probably likes them a lot more than you do.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

That third painting is my enemy.
Nylund

Cats, clowns, and naked ladies. That covers about 90% of the art there. My question is, is that representative of the actual art found in the thrift stores, or does it just reflect the tastes of the collector?
- Boundegar
  
  That’s perfect, because it also covers 90% of my interests. Sadly, most thrift store art is reproductions of the Impressionists and posters advertising long-gone museum shows. Gems like these must be searched out.
  - http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
    
    Living in Las Vegas I was hoping to snag a Velvet Elvis but never found one. Weirdly you could find the mormon influence down there with temple paintings.
axlrosen

Of course there’s also the Museum of Bad Art in Boston: http://www.museumofbadart.org/
- Ken Williams
  
  One of my favorite local artists (in Minneapolis) has voluntarily donated several of her works to the Museum of Bad Art.
agitprop

Most of these are actually quite good. I guess “bad” is a relative term.
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

Millie Jackson “Feelin’ Bitchy”

http://www.amazon.com/Feelin-Bitchy-Millie-Jackson/dp/B000LPS3Z8
- http://daruiburns.tumblr.com/ Dlo Burns
  
  Thank you, I knew she looked familiar
- princeminski
  
  Superb connoisseurship.
Spenardo

The clown painting is by an artist named Leslie Emery. It’s one in a series he was commissioned to do for a golf course bar in California. Prints of them show up frequently on eBay (three are available right now). He was better known for his non-clown portraits. He was also a WPA artist. One of my favorite possessions is a large original oil painting of his from the ’50s that I’ve had for over 20 years.
http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

The two naked ladies with cats faces growing from their hair are incredible.