In the second issue of Love & Theft, we invite you to explore an age-old creative practice that only entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1984: to repurpose, to convert or adapt (esp. something holding electronic data) for use in a different format; to use for a different purpose.” Our contributors repurpose material across genre or medium, mining unlikely sources—from music videos and political pamphlets to coin-operated massagers—for new meaning.

As we approach the semiquincentennial, the anniversary of Paine's Common Sense, I hope that any citizen concerned with the state of our democracy reads Common Sense, 2026. In 1776, when Paine held public readings of the pamphlet in communities far and wide, he understood one important truth, the strength and power of public opinion. As stated in the preface, "this redaction project—this interaction with a foundational text—is a rousing democratic act available to all American

We’re just such creatures of context. It’s easy to forget that in a gallery. It’s got to be white walls. You must have the label next to it. None of those are true...You don't have to have a white wall. These are all contexts that are important for viewers, whether they realize it or not. That's a tool that you have as an artist. Art that's outside of the gallery can sometimes be even more powerful, I think, because it's a bit surprising to find art in your daily life.

At the time of deepest listening to this song, I was in Waco, mowing the lot on which sat the first house my wife and I ever bought. The entire neighborhood was built on the site of a former military base, and our yard held layers of broken glass. After a rain, the shards would rise to the surface and I’d go around collecting the pieces in a can...There we weathered the pandemic – me, my wife, and our 2-year-old son – while also weathering a high risk pregnancy.