There is hardly ever a time when FREE really means free. But in this city, as crummy as it may seem to be, there are many places where you'd be surprised to have people just begging you to take their stuff off of their hands. More times than not, the best way to get free stuff is simply to know lots of people and "run into" them frequently. Small talk leads to them mentioning how they are moving out of their house next week and have to find a way to get rid of all these big, square boards that the city won't pick up as what they label as "trash." There you go. Next week, you happily take them off their hands, paint the boards the next week and sell them each for a few hundrew dollars. Right?

In an ideal city, young artists such as yourself would be able to do this. But unfortunately young, urban artist are not well representated in Jackson (as is the opinion and thus reason for mixedCore). Lack of voice means you guys aren't being seen or appreciated. The city won't buy your work, it hardly displays it, and it would be just as happy to keep it in your school's closet if it could. But that is going to change!

One of the best things about being young is that many things are free or paid for by your loving parents. Most of your highschools probably give you lots of free art supplies (okay, minus that incredible tuition your parents are paying). But since most of us are having to pay for very little these days, we also get relatively little income. So we learn how to be thrifty (also see Trifty Guide).

Below are a listing of some places or ways to get free supplies:

1. Be friendly with people you know who are moving, remodeling their house, throwing out usable materials. Take their stuff off of their hands. (don't make them bring it to you. be polite and get it yourself)

*It is important that you not restrict yourself to painting with oil on canvas. This is hard to find for free or discounted. Rather, think more alternative: spray paint or latex on wood... or collage on an old door... sculpture with old computers and car parts... the options are endless. Finding free materials will help you adapt to this.

2. Be a trash man. They find the coolest stuff everyday and who knows if any of them keep any of it. But ride around your neighborhood on trash day and look to see what people are throwing out. You don't have to open up bags and dig through it, just drive around slowly to see what you can see. It is perfectly legal to take people's trash as long as it is out by the street and not on their property. (if they are out in the yard, you might at least be nice and ask them though)

3. Look for remodeling projects. The best find is large dumpsters on the sides of streets where they are remodeling a house and throwing lots of good wood, brushes, paint, and other supplies away. You might have to get out of your car to look in these big things. Please be safe and watch for nails or sharp objects! (tetnus is bad I hear)

4. Thrift stores and garage sales. These may not exactly be free, but it definately can save you money. Thrift stores have frames, boards, fabric, paintings on canvas (that you can paint over), glass, paint, brushes, knives, lights, cameras, electronics, and nearly anything you may be wanting to set up a studio or make some art. (we encourage haggling!)

5. Junk yards. Any 3D artist should visit a junk yard every now and then. Lots of car parts and big appliances. (again, you may have to pay a small amount of money, but not always)

6. Similar to 2 and 3, my favorite thing to do at 2am in the morning is go "dumpster raiding." I had a roomate once who was the best at helping me collect an endless amount of paint, wood, windows, tables, a couch, chairs, you name it. We had more junk filling our apartment for awhile that we could paint. Just remember to stay legal! No trespassing, only get things in dumpsters on the street or things that are clearly trash. We don't encourage you to steal anything!

At this point, that is all I have to suggest. Please email me any suggestions you may have and I will add them here. Good luck.