Happiest Madonna-ronna with Mousele

Artist 

Aaron Sheppard

96 x 42 x 5″

Mixed-Media Collage with Waffle Iron on Composite Board with Carved Wood Frame

About the Artwork 

This vibrant mixed media assemblage is a celebration—and interrogation—of childhood imagination, nostalgia, and the manufactured fantasies we grow up with. Constructed on a large wooden panel, the piece fuses painting, sculpture, and found objects to build a chaotic yet intentional universe where memory, myth, and marketing collide.

At the top, a handmade wooden castle juts upward with uneven, arrow-like spires. It unmistakably references the famed Disney castle, but here it feels less like a fairy tale and more like something imagined by a child with scraps and crayons—more raw creativity than corporate polish. It suggests not only what we’re told magic looks like, but how we rebuild it ourselves.

Two black waffle irons, mounted at the center like watchful eyes or oversized ears, instantly conjure the unmistakable silhouette of a certain cartoon mouse. The reference is clever and layered—sweet and absurd on the surface, but quietly incisive. These aren’t plush toys or animated cells—they’re household appliances. Warm, domestic, and utilitarian, they speak to the ways childhood iconography bleeds into everyday life, even in the most ordinary forms.

Painted in a wild palette of red, turquoise, lavender, and white, the surface pulses with manic energy. Cartoonish faces, bold lines, scratches, hearts, and scrawls emerge from the chaos like memories surfacing. It’s equal parts graffiti wall, playground mural, and fever dream.

The entire work rests on and is framed by wood—a material that grounds the fantasy, reminding us that all imagined worlds begin with something real, something tactile. Unlike polished media, this piece splinters and bleeds. It’s not about watching magic; it’s about building it, breaking it, and building it again.

Imaginative, unruly, and deeply personal, this artwork is less a tribute to childhood than a reclamation of it. It reminds us that imagination isn’t static or pristine—it’s messy, loud, and very much alive.

Price: $5,900