The Magical Fridge Magnets.

For Christmas this year I set an interesting challenge for myself. The challenge was to paint individual canvases for all of my friends. I bought approximately 500 tiny canvases some were 2" by 2" some were 3"X 3" and some were 2"x 3". Now, I didn't set out to paint individual canvases for everyone I know, that would be insane... just to paint individual canvases for all of my friends, or people I care about to some degree or another.

I went around asking a bunch of people the random question of "what color is your kitchen?" I didn't specify as to what color they accessorize their kitchen with, just what color it was. Those who were smart enough to give me the color of their kitchen accessories - got a matching diptych, triptych, or even a quintych mini-art for their fridge. Those who told me the color of their walls got paintings that matched my impression of them - color-wise.

These magnets are magical in one sense. They gave me a chance to really think about all of the people they were painted for. My family, my friends, my neighbors, some of my co-workers. The thing is, I don't even really care if they liked them - what was important... what was magical to me was the act of painting them while thinking about these people individually. I started months ago a little simple project I thought - which actually turned out to be a huge undertaking.

I managed to do a lot of bad things during the project too. Don't get me wrong, not anything criminal - just ruined a table and might have to sand and refinish the floor.

I have my favorites too. The ones I made for my mother remind me of peacock feathers. The ones I made for my BFF match the backsplash in her kitchen perfectly. The ones I made for my friend Kim C. were made to some very interesting specifications, but I rose to that challenge. The ones I ended up giving to my friend Kelly were by far my absolute favorite as they are the only ones that I changed the M.O. of the artwork for. The funny thing is - I only took pictures of a very small set of them, and now I regret not having pictures of all of them. They are all of course in the homes of friends and family where I can either go visit them and photograph them or ask for pictures of them - but I should have been better at documenting the process.

I think I loved making them so much that I might start a store on ETSY and sell them. Someone might want a little triptych for their fridge... And hey - we can all use a little extra cash. :)