Christina Madison

By Stina Aleah What McDonald’s Money Really Means There was a time when McDonald’s wasn’t casual. It wasn’t expected. And it wasn’t something you could just have . McDonald’s Money is not just about fast food, it’s about the moment a child realizes that something small can feel like everything. A few dollars held weight. It meant yes. It meant today is different . But this painting doesn’t live in childhood alone. It lives in what happens after . From “We Have Food at Home” to “We Made It”...

There’s a sentence most of us have heard at least once growing up: “We have food at home.” At the time, it never felt like love. It felt like watching something you really wanted pass you by. But this painting isn’t about what that phrase sounded like then. It ’s about what it means now . A Childhood Memory So Many of Us Share We Have Food at Home is created from a very specific moment, one that somehow belongs to so many of us at the same time. Remember the car ride, and then driving past...

A Story About Care, Nostalgia, and the Childhood I Carried Some memories live quietly in the body. They aren’t always the big moments we expect to remember either. They’re smaller. Softer. Often ordinary. But when we grow older, we begin to understand the love that lived inside them. “Please Don’t Bump the Ends” is one of those memories. This oil painting is part of my series The Childhood I Carried , a body of work that explores the overlooked moments of childhood like the small rituals,...