Magnetic Shoes

Visitors like souvenirs. Postcards, snow globes, magnets, T shirts. In Paris, the Eiffel Tower is the image of choice. In New York, it’s the Statue of Liberty. In Amsterdam it's tulips, wooden shoes, and windmills. The Bloemenmarkt is full of them, piled on tables and clustered on metal display boards. Most of these touristy trinkets are made from plastic in some other country. Plastic wooden shoes. My new favorite oxymoron. No matter how insignificant the item, if you gather enough of them, it looks impressive. There is compositional strength in mass. Line up or repeat one color, and suddenly you have created a sense of order within this mass. Your eye follows it. Even if it is only a gathering of magnets shaped like wooden shoes.