Colorado man finds painting he created as teen 21 years later at Goodwill

DENVER — Shoppers can find some wonderful treasures in thrift shops. A Colorado man found a treasure he created 21 years ago.

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Jacob Hansen said he was recently browsing through a Goodwill store in Denver, hoping to find a casserole dish for a meal train to support a friend battling breast cancer, KUSA reported. He found the dish but also discovered a painting he drew 21 years ago for a high school art show.

“I look back at the backside of the store, and I see this painting and said to myself, ‘Ah, that looks familiar,” Hansen, an interior designer, told the television station. “That looks a lot like the picture I did.”

It was. Hansen’s painting of sunflowers and other foliage was on a back wall, complete with his signature. Hansen said he was a 14-year-old freshman at Golden High School and sold the piece for about $150 after his art teacher entered it in a Jefferson County art show, KUSA reported.

“I think it was the first piece of art I had in any show,” Hansen told the television station. “It’s always been a fun memory to look back on something that I actually created and sold.

“As we got closer and closer, I saw the sunflowers and the tin and the light brown colors that I remembered. I saw my signature on the bottom and then it was like, ‘wow, this is unbelievable.’ And I immediately FaceTimed my mom.”

Hansen’s wife, Quinn Kelsey, was also surprised.

“We could not believe it,” Kelsey told KUSA. “He goes, ‘Remember that painting I told you about that I sold when I was a kid and my mom never forgave me? I think this is it.’”

The couple bought the artwork for $20 and hope to sell it online, with proceeds going toward breast cancer research, the television station reported.

“It’s a small thing that we can do to help out a big cause, so if we’re able to keep that feeling and that emotion going through others, then that’s amazing,” Hansen told KUSA.

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