Why thrift?
by Eva-Maria Spampinato
13 October, 2023
Etymology of thrift: c. 1300, "fact or condition of thriving," also "prosperity, savings," from Middle English thriven "to thrive", influenced by (or from) Old Norse þrift, variant of þrif "prosperity," from þrifask "to thrive." Sense of "habit of saving, economy" first recorded in the 1550s. (1)
thrift is inspired by my upbringing, art practice, & research. Born in Berkeley, California, I am the first generation of my multicultural immigrant family, & I grew up surrounded by the cultural & spiritual revolution of the 1960s & ’70s. The epicenter of when Eastern philosophy met the West Coast, birthed the countercultures of the Beatniks, Hippies, free love, drug experimentation, free speech, the Black Panthers, & where psychedelic & funk music proliferated. This is my story, my childhood embracing the fusion of the Bay Area’s cultures & my heritages with the notions of thrift - from the past & into the present.
Peet’s Coffee 1969, Opened on 1966 by Mr. Alfred Peet, Berkeley, CA.
From the grassroots to green & craft movements, the earth-centered Berkeley flourished in its community & the arts. They opened artisanal businesses such as the prized spice shop Peet’s Coffee and Tea on Vine Street, & located around the corner was the first farm-to-table restaurant, Chez Panisse. Down on Ashby Avenue was the practical home & garden goods store, Whole Earth Access, where my family shopped often for the household & our cabin near Mtn Lassen, was an extension of the Whole Earth Catalog. Amongst the thriving city, the regional artists immersed themselves in experimenting with natural resources, found objects, established community-centered collaborations, whilst embracing craft cultural heritages from around the world in the arts.
Alice Waters on the first day at Chez Panisse in 1971, Bekeley, CA.
Whole Earth Catalog Cover, Fall 1968.
Such prominent & influential collectives that impacted my childhood was Funk Art & Fiber Art Movements as Fiberworks Center for Textile Arts (1973-87), that was founded by artist Gyöngy Laky, with national treasure contributors as: Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, & Jack Lenor Larson. When driving down HWY 80 in our white VW bus, I’d always seek out the latest Emeryville Mudflats Sculptures (1962-1997) remaining from high tide. It was a project inspired by a course at the California College of Arts & Crafts (1908 - 2003) by students who collected driftwood from the bay to create ephemeral sculptures. And lastly, my favorite — the myriad collectives & UC Berkeley students who gathered in the Northern California redwood forests & built salvaged redwood dwellings for alternative lifestyles that supported the preservation of the natural ecosystem. I am the next generation of these movements.
Gyöngy Laky, founder of Fiberworks, date unknown.
Thrift: My Family
The particular historical context of my youth & my unique home life is foundational to who I am as an artist & historian. My entire family is highly creative, curious, hands-on, & deeply innovative. They taught me how to care for & respect objects from problem-solving & fixing common items with many different materials using standard household tools. My elders passed down the wisdom of material knowledge – the old way – from their homelands.
My mother immigrated from Sweden, & was raised with a frugal lifestyle, a byproduct of Sweden’s poverty lifestyle from pre-WW1 through WW2. Raised in Stockholm & the countryside, she was always concerned about water waste — saving dishwater to water the plants, collecting rainwater for washing hair (much softer on hair & didn’t need to use conditioner), & not flushing the toilet after every use (particularly during droughts). She taught us how to respect what nature had to offer us.
Her love for nature, & being practical, set the path for her aspirations to become a furniture designer in Sweden. She learned about design, different woods, & how to care for them, from the trees to the household. Her move to the United States in 1962 led to an early career in Scandinavian furniture working with Mobilia in Berkeley.
My mother in Sweden, 1966.
My father & his family immigrated from Argentina in 1966. He & my grandfather owned a very successful auto mechanic business, Tony & John’s Foreign Car Service on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. Where there were hippies, UC Berkeley students, police with tear gas & Hari Krishnas walking by every day was my family busy working in the shop.
My father & Grandfather in the workshop, Berkeley, CA. Mid 1980’s.
Our auto shop was unique. While most garages purchased parts from manufacturers, my father & grandfather were inventing, & engineering repurposed steel parts into new car parts in the garage workshop. It was our business model to make services affordable for the customers. My father respected them & their wallets. He was ingenious, an inventive man with the biggest heart. There were many times his inventions proved more robust & sustainable than newly manufactured parts at higher prices. This was their craft of automobiles, my father & grandfather were the Masters.
Growing up in an international multi-generational family amidst the diverse underground countercultures of the Bay Area taught me the universal way to respect materials, & objects, to thrive by making what you have last, & to love the outdoors. Little did I know at the time, that this way of living would become a central foundation of what I would pursue in my journey as an artist.
My grandfather & me at the shop, Berkeley, CA. 1981.
How did thrift start?
By age nine, I was diagnosed with dyslexia & I knew being an artist was my path. I struggled in school & it was my paternal grandmother (an artist herself) who discovered my passion when she gave me a Da Vinci drawing to draw during her painting class. I became enamored with how Renaissance artists were able to capture the human figure hundreds of years ago. My strong desire to learn the masters & their traditional techniques transformed into a craving to learn the skills & make my art materials & surfaces, by sourcing what I already had.
Due to the lack of craft heritage programs in the United States’ linear academic system, this became my lifelong solo route toward becoming a journeywoman.
I created my apprentice pathway, one step at a time, based on what programs & life experiences were available to me. At the different stages of my life, I leaned into academic undergraduate studies of art history, sought out an art conservation career with internships, lived abroad in Europe, lived in the mountains for 7 years & then art school at Florence Academy of Arts. But I still wasn’t satisfied. It wasn’t clear to me what I was doing until I attended the History of Design post-grad program at the Royal College of Art/V&A Museum. There I was finally able to communicate through academic & practical research in my dissertation, where I am now a specialist in the theory & practice of early modern artisan epistemology & art materials (1400-1850).
First Day of grad school at the old Entrance of the V&A. This used to be the original entrance for fine art RCA students.
2016, V&A Museum, London, UK.
The notion of early modern thrift was introduced to me at an RCA presentation by Professor Simon Werret, from the history of science department at UCL to speak on his then-upcoming book: ‘Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experimentation' in 2017. Werret’s book highlights that early modern experimenters & scientists transformed their households into laboratories by using the practice of thrift as they recycled, repurposed, repaired, & reused their material possessions to learn about the natural world. This resonated so deeply with me. In one word, I was able to synthesize my creative practice, my love for early modern artists, my multi-cultural heritages & how the Bay Area countercultures thrived in the late 20th century.
‘Thrifty is how to manage what you have […] to thrive, respect & make good use of what the world provided to raise riches in morals & values […] made most precious resources given by nature [...] whilst express gratitude for the gifts of the range of materials & its possessions.”(2)
This practice of thrift is an innate part of human development in response to living with nature. Practiced all over the world for mankind, to be thrifty is survival & respect at the same time. And to be thrifty is thriving, inspired by limited sources that create ‘restrictions’ that funnel curiosity into creativity, & lead to discoveries. By merging the practice of thrift with empirical values - the practice of observational and experimental studies - is the act scholars call the inquiry of nature. And this also is the foundation of art, craft, design & the evolution of the Western modern age of science, technology, institutions, & the systems that support capitalism.
The Alchemist, Cornelis Bega, 1663, at the National Gallery of Art.
What does being “thrifty” mean to you?
I embraced being thrifty in my practice long before I consciously understood the influences my family & community had upon me. Being thrifty in my art practice gives me the breath of creativity that becomes an experience, connecting me to the source through my tools, and materials in my house & those I forage. To be thrifty is very similar to an artist working with a limited palette of colours. When I source ingredients & objects randomly available in my house, I improvise with them as tools & materials, which in response increases my impulses. The act brings me back to being a child, fully surrendered, responding to my curiosity, my senses, & my imagination. The making experience can transmute a whole new perspective that opens my eyes to the mysteries of life, & our beautiful natural world. And in return, the experience generates a great amount of respect, energy, & sensitivity to what resources have been given & provided to me. In all, the whole practice builds my confidence & trust in the unknown.
thrift is a way of being, & it operates, to some extent, outside of capitalism. Outside our dependence on money & power. To that end, thriftiness is a type of freedom about staying humble as your authentic self, one with the universe, & with nature.
Making bone black gouache using burnt bones, photo by Eva-Maria Spampinato. 2023
What do you believe the value thrift has to offer?
As a design historian, I am trained to see patterns, design change, evolution & human behaviors through the historical lens of consumption, art, technology, science, economics, & politics. It is my belief that the value of practicing thrift IS the bridge to a holistic, earth-centered lifestyle, & the balance we are seeking as a solution for the future. This is much like what I experienced in my childhood in the Bay Area. The return of thrift appears clear to me that harmonising craft cultural heritages & infusing contemporary practices - from nature, the studio & industry - will expand, resolve & discover outcomes. May they be new, old or modified. It’s a matter of finding balance through research in both narratives of the past & present - gratefully we are already on this journey - now globally. It is an interesting time we are living in. Before the pandemic it was a rapid age of makers, designers, bespoke, artists & scientists experimenting with materials & technology - much like the late 18th century ‘chaotic’ transforming age of the industrious Europe. However this time it is for the sake of climate resilience. It is my goal for thrift to become an online journal providing at-the-forefront research, projects, artists & industries with beautifully rendered photography to disseminate, & provide a space for ongoing discussions happening globally as we move forward on this mission living together with nature.
(1) Online Etymology Dictionary, Accessed October 25, 2023.
(2) Werret, Simon, Thrifty Science: Making the Most of Materials in the History of Experimentation, Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, (2019), pp.23- 25.