I remember the days of running to my stereo, when hearing my favourite tune, desperately trying to get it to record on tape and doing this countless times until I had the perfect mix tape.
My earliest memory of cassettes was when I was about 5, and I’m in my living room with my yellow red and blue (kids Walkman) listening to the body guard soundtrack… I wasn’t allowed to watch the film but boy did I love the music and Whitney Houston for me was a beloved favourite. I mean can you picture it? I’m probably wearing some sort of 90s pattern dungarees belting very out of tune I will always love you..
So I have quite a bit of nostalgia attached to cassettes as I can imagine anyone who lived in the 80s/90s do, and it just reminds me of my childhood and let’s be honest simpler times.
But back to the colourful cassettes..one day I found my local charity shop chucking out a bunch of cassettes tapes, just like that. I’m the bin. They said that they took up too much space and that they never sold, even album ones. I was really upset by this, not just because of the environmental impact, but the waste of something that was once so great and popular. I guess like many things these days it became obsolete. This broke my heart, I mean I should probably mention I was heavily pregnant with my second child so I found it all to be very personal and I was pretty emotional. Although I totally stand by it, seeing something that gave you such fond memories when you were younger being tossed aside, it’s not great. So I decided I needed to do something about this.
So shortly after that, I asked my local charity shops to let me know if any tapes came in and that I would make a donation and take them. I also started scrolling on freecycle for people getting rid of tapes.
Que the husband having to drive me an hour away to the other side of the county to pick up 90 old mix tapes.. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. But I was going to do something and give them some new life.
I can’t tell you what possessed me to paint them. I mean I’m an artist so it’s not totally out there for why I did it.. but I did do it. The image below shows the first 12 tapes I ever painted. Each having bright 80s style colours and very much keeping in with the era they were beloved.
My earliest memory of cassettes was when I was about 5, and I’m in my living room with my yellow red and blue (kids Walkman) listening to the body guard soundtrack… I wasn’t allowed to watch the film but boy did I love the music and Whitney Houston for me was a beloved favourite. I mean can you picture it? I’m probably wearing some sort of 90s pattern dungarees belting very out of tune I will always love you..
So I have quite a bit of nostalgia attached to cassettes as I can imagine anyone who lived in the 80s/90s do, and it just reminds me of my childhood and let’s be honest simpler times.
But back to the colourful cassettes..one day I found my local charity shop chucking out a bunch of cassettes tapes, just like that. I’m the bin. They said that they took up too much space and that they never sold, even album ones. I was really upset by this, not just because of the environmental impact, but the waste of something that was once so great and popular. I guess like many things these days it became obsolete. This broke my heart, I mean I should probably mention I was heavily pregnant with my second child so I found it all to be very personal and I was pretty emotional. Although I totally stand by it, seeing something that gave you such fond memories when you were younger being tossed aside, it’s not great. So I decided I needed to do something about this.
So shortly after that, I asked my local charity shops to let me know if any tapes came in and that I would make a donation and take them. I also started scrolling on freecycle for people getting rid of tapes.
Que the husband having to drive me an hour away to the other side of the county to pick up 90 old mix tapes.. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. But I was going to do something and give them some new life.
I can’t tell you what possessed me to paint them. I mean I’m an artist so it’s not totally out there for why I did it.. but I did do it. The image below shows the first 12 tapes I ever painted. Each having bright 80s style colours and very much keeping in with the era they were beloved.
I posted them on my social media and it just started from there. Turns out people all over the world wanted a piece of colourful nostalgia for their homes. I’ve sold hundreds of tapes. Kept hundreds of cassettes out of landfill and I’m giving a new meaning to the old mix tape. My studio had hundreds of tapes that are waiting to be transformed and I even off diy kits now so people can create their own unique pieces.
That’s how I invented the old mix tape.
That’s how I invented the old mix tape.
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