RJ Julia Booksellers is a local bookstore in Madison, CT that I visited often as a kid as I am a devoted reader as well. They commissioned me to paint these wood stars which were from a 1989 Copper Beech tree that used to be behind the bookstore, but unfortunately needed to be torn down. To memorialize the tree that shaded the bookstore and its partnered cafe, came the idea to make these magic wands known as “Wish Sticks.” “Wish Sticks” remind us that “we all need the possibility of magic, of wishes coming true, a belief that it will all work out… sending kindness and magic in the world…” It is also filled “with the metaphor of how communities come together - accidentally - purposefully - and magically.”

You can read the article here, to learn more about the project.