By Marley Brennan
Staff Writer
Kathleen Keifer, local artist based in Manhattan Beach, has recently revamped the classic board game, MONOPOLY, into a version she named California Dreaming.
Born and raised in Chicago, Keifer studied at at the University of Notre Dame and the Art Institute of Chicago, and her art is now portrayed in galleries across the globe. When coming up with a design for the game, Keifer says she was challenged with representing California fully. Lifestyle, culture, and well-known characteristics of the state played a substantial role in the creation of the game, according to Keifer.
“The three new movers I designed reflect the way of life here: a woodie with a surfboard, a jet, and a yacht,” Keifer said.
The initial idea for the game came from Hasbro, who reached out to Keifer and tasked her with creating a California themed version of Monopoly. According to Keifer, the most altered aspect of the game are the spaces on the board—each box is a work of art displaying a significant place or something commonly seen in California.
“I wanted to cover some of the iconic locations and architecture of California, [such as] rustic cabins up in the mountains, inviting bungalows with deep porches, the Victorian painted ladies of San Francisco, mid-century cool desert homes, and the yellow monopoly which represents the sunny, modern beach houses” Keifer said.
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