The Fridge Story

Once upon a time, it was a slow day at the Raptor Center. I was standing by the fridge in the meat room, looking at two "O" stickers left on the fridge from a time when there were letters on the door indicating... something. It struck me that the "OO" was reminiscent of owl eyeballs, which was especially fitting since, as mentioned, I was at the Raptor Center.

I walked over to the ICU and pulled out a couple of colored Sharpies (usually used for marking birds' feet to keep track of who's who). Thus, the owl doodle on the fridge was born. A few years later, the owl doodle was fading.

On another slow day somebody mentioned this. I headed for the Sharpies, but someone (I think it might've been Peg, or maybe Alex) said, seeing as how we had an assortment of paints left over from various projects, why not refurbish the owl? First step: mixing the paints. A trick, too, as I needed brown and I had to get it out of magenta. Second step: the background. Varnish was involved for the lighter shades of green. As you're imagining, there was a lot of improvisation in this project because I had to make do with what we had.

Third step (a little more involved): We found a slide of a screech owl, pulled the overhead projecter into the meat room, and adjusted things so that the owl was projected on the fridge door. Then I went to work on the owl itself.

And this is how I made my first (and so far, last) fridge mural. Like I said, I can't believe I'd forgotten about it. That fridge is my masterpiece.