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Street Artist Paints Sad Clown Faces on Lonely Discarded Furniture Left in the Street

By Emma Taggart on December 4, 2017

No matter where you live, you’ve probably come across sad, discarded furniture and household items that have been kicked to the curb. Unwanted, and exposed to the elements, these items are left on the hard pavement, waiting for someone to cherish them once again. A Los Angeles-based street artist—who goes by the name Lonesome Town—has been humanizing these unwanted objects and radiating their shared melancholy by painting sad clown faces on them.

The anonymous artist first started the series when he came across a “sad refrigerator” that was seemingly staring back at him. He thought about how at one point, the appliance could have been utilized daily by a family, and now that it was discarded, saw “something beautifully tragic about it.” The artist playfully painted a sad clown’s face onto its surface, and even attached a clown hat. The abandoned object was transformed into a piece of art that is likely to get a laugh from passers by. “I feel like the humor is just as important as the sad sentiment — a weird little level playing field between the two,” says Lonesome Town.

Since then, Lonesome Town regularly finds dumped objects to transform. Sometimes taking up to 90 minutes to complete, the artist admits he finds the process liberating. Lonesome Town documents his installations on Instagram, where is has a growing fanbase of empathetic followers.