Madelyn is a long time resident of the West Kelowna B.C., Canada area. During that time, and over a lifetime, the driving force of creativity has gained in strength and meaning. She has a long history of meeting the many challenges of making art, which includes completion of her BFA from U.B.C. Okanagan. This artist is always attempting new ways to express her ideas, hence a vision constantly challenged.
Madelyn's work is nature based, most often with highly textured and tactile surfaces, such as those seen in the natural world. Random, found objects, which symbolize all forms of life are at times adhered to the wood matrix, requiring close scrutiny of that surface. Madelyn expresses the idea of humanity and nature as sharing the same spaces. Her conclusive intent is to offer the viewer a more poignant awareness of nature and our connection with it. This artist can be found in her home studio on most days of the year.
Artist's Statement:
At a deeply residing level within, I am profoundly affected by the visual folds, shapes, and the highly textured or abrasive marks of the vast, natural environment. This would include the marks of all living things. When my interpretation of them is transferred to a matrix they become an ambiguous environment of their own.
Initially, and essential to the idea, an organic shape is cut from a wood veneer panel. I become intensely involved with the surface of that shape, manipulating, often gouging or scratching it. At some moment of impetus, medium is laid down, depositing sculptural effects. Meaningful and random objects, possibly tea bags or fragments of wasp nests, are imbedded or adhered onto the surface. They symbolize human and biological interconnection. Layers of colour, then, without plan, synthesize with the forms and textures. The surface leads me.
I am compelled to create a Utopian environment, one shared by all forms of life. My textured abstracted compositions metamorphose into idealistic landscapes. That idea is in stark opposition to the popular belief that nature is a provider of convenience. She is viewed as product for consumerism, manipulation and plunder. Involvement with the art surface removes me from that deeply disturbing reality.
The tangible matrixes of my art are there for investigation and provocation of thought.