30 Supreme Examples Of 'Terrible Art In Charity Shops'

A year ago, Bored Panda published a piece on Terrible Art in Charity Shops, only that time, it was a little bit more specific. Back then we focused on people "role-playing" or recreating the artworks that captured their attention. Now, we're focusing more on a broader angle.

One of the group's admins, Al Bigg, describes the group's community as "a very mixed bunch, from complete amateurs like myself who join TAICS knowing very little about art to artists who pray never to see their own art included in a post, and some people who have studied art on a high level."

"I joined because I love charity shops and thought it would be a laugh," Bigg told Bored Panda. And I think that's part of its charm; people can easily find their place within the group, no matter their artistic skill or expertise.

According to the admin, the admins and mods aim to keep this place an easy-going, humorous group with just a light touch of oversight to help it to evolve by itself.

"We love to have a laugh," Bigg said. "We want members to feel part of the community and if we all learn something about art, that's great too!"

As you can see from the pictures, you couldn't define the genre of thrift store paintings. There's a little bit of everything. "The most popular paintings [within the group] are often the ones we would least expect," Bigg said. "However, naivety and nudity always do well as well as the bizarre ones that no one can really explain."

Interestingly, a University of Bamberg research team led by psychologist Claudia Muth conducted a small study and found that "the higher the subjectively perceived degree of ambiguity within an artwork, the more participants liked it, and the more interesting and affecting it was for them."

"Artworks," the researchers state, "are not riddles to be solved via analytic steps." Perhaps Muth and her colleagues should look into Terrible Art in Charity Shops as well?

Ultimately, the curators of Terrible Art in Charity Shops are its members. "We have to remind [this] every day," Bigg said, pointing to a paragraph in the group's 'About' section which explains that "Admin does not define 'terrible' as this is such a subjective area. As such, posts will not be removed for being good, even if they are prints by a famous artist!"

"Art is subjective, what you find inspirational and wonderful, I could find silly little stickmen in a boring, out of the perspective industrial landscape!" Bigg explained. So, one could say that Terrible Art in Charity Shops is actually a very inclusive group too.