A friend tells me she has acquired a new bed – an old wooden one – and she is finally going to indulge in a wish to paint designs on a bed, to unleash creativity thusly.  I relate to the 'canvas' needing to be 'not new' in the situation of painting on furniture or clothing or walls or – well, you get the idea. 

Canvas intended for a painting or furniture intended to be decorated is something else. 

But there is such a reluctance to somehow mar a pristine surface that is someone else's product – usually mass produced!  It's cloying, actually.  Restrictive. 

With something that does not carry that 'barrier of newness' there is the potential – lord, the invitation – to personalize.  And maybe that is part of the craving and then the satisfaction.  And all the details, of course, in the journey of accepting our own creativeness.