Owensboro Woman Searching For Sentimental Stained Glass Art Sold at Thrift Store

Two of my favorite things in the world are 1. Thrift Stores and 2. Art. I love finding beautiful pieces and imagining the stories behind them. Especially if the artwork is original. As an artist, I have actually come across my own paintings at thrift stores before. I love that instead of being discarded, they can find new owners to appreciate them.

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I saw a Facebook post yesterday that my friend Jennifer shared. An Owensboro woman, Anne Taylor is looking for a very special framed stained glass piece. It is absolutely gorgeous (I'm sure it's even more stunning in person.) She shared that it was made by her husband when he was a student at Daviess County High School.

Art teacher, Mrs. Scifres, gave Tim Taylor the project to do somewhere around 1982-83.  "Tim thinks it was to keep him out of trouble," Anne told me. A faux stained glass technique, the beautiful design was painted and leadwork was done by hand. If you went to DCHS, you may remember it being displayed there for years in the art room window at the back bus entrance.

Fast forward to 2018 and Tim was browsing Consumer Mall on his lunch break. He saw his handiwork in a booth there. With the price tag of $125, he decided to leave it. It was almost Christmas at the time and with three kiddos to buy gifts for, he understandably didn't want to spend the money. When they went back to get it, it was gone.

Anne decided to take to Facebook today to ask for help in finding this special artwork.  That's when our mutual friend Jennifer shared the photo.  Either Jennifer has a lot of friends, Owensboro is a very small world, or both! Her friend Sara Riney popped up in the comments with a picture of the art and a tag that said "Booth #278." Come to find out, Sara was visiting Owensboro from Atlanta that same Christmas of 2018. She commented

"This is crazy, but I saw it at Consumers Mall over Xmas in 2018, thought it was super cool and took a picture of it, but didn't buy it. So here's a slightly better photo of it if that helps?"

Sara remembered it and found the photo in her Google archive. Learning the booth number led to finding the owner of the booth at the time. Who just so happens to be one of my closest friends! Lori and Steve Champion owned the legendary 3 Monkey's Pub on East 4th St (where Ten O Six is now.) It was one of my favorite places in town, full of interesting art and cool decor. When they closed the pub, Steve sold all of the unique paintings, statues, and furniture at the Consumer Mall. Including Tim Taylor's stained glass.

Unfortunately, Lori doesn't know where Steve got the artwork before 3 Monkeys' Pub or who purchased the artwork from The Consumer Mall in 2018, but we are hoping maybe someone who frequented there knows what happened to it. If you own this painting or know who does, please reach out to Anne Collins Taylor on Facebook. If you could share this story in the hopes of helping them find this sentimental sainted glass, the Taylors would greatly appreciate it.