Madison: Yes
Mimi: So, welcome Madison!
Madison: Hi
Mimi: First of all you were an architect for many years, is that correct?
Madison: I was a designer; I did not take the test. I did building design for twenty five years
Mimi: So, you have to have a particular mathematical mind for that, don’t you?
Madison: No, basically for geometry, all the equations you can look them up, also the computer, that is doing all the equations you just have to make sure the building closes when doing it. A lot of my work, the majority in my career was conceptual, design schematic, design development and making that design happen. My goal was to come up with the design, and make sure the design was built.
Mimi: Did you enjoy doing that work?
Madison: I did, I still do.
Mimi: You still do some.
Madison: I still do little bit, I do houses. I do non-profit work, so what that means, for little or no money I will do a design for a non-profit cultural group and then they can take that design to an architect who is registered and follow through with it .That is all I will do with it is the design work I am not interested in doing any kind of documents any kind of legal documents.
Mimi: You seem to be very active in the art community and also an advocate for the underdog, or a voice for the underdog. Have you always felt strongly about these concerns?
Madison: Yes, I have, I’ve had a very difficult upbringing as a child and so a lot of disability that I face is mental disabilities, so with that being an artist with disabilities, hearing other people’s story, tells my story and it puts them in a different kind of light ‘
Mimi: I t gives you more compassion, doesn’t it.
Madison: Yes, it gives compassion. It is good to do something that gets out of yourself and in a way you can tell your story but really it’s someone else’s story through canvas and through interview.
Mimi: Your preferred medium is oil paint?
Madison: Oil, oil and canvas
Mimi: Have you always worked in oil?
Madison: No, I’ve worked in a lot of mediums; I’ve worked in watercolor, charcoal
Mimi: Is this your favorite?
Madison: Yes, I’m in love with oil and canvas.
Mimi: What do you like about it?
Madison: I love the way it feels, I paint with my hands, I love the way it smells
Mimi: How do you get it off your hands?
Madison: I am very careful, sometimes I wear gloves, sometimes I don’t but I wash my hands immediately.
Mimi: I didn’t realize that, so primarily with your hands?
Madison: Yes, primarily with my hands. I have been doing that ever since I was about five, finger painting. I just love the tactile feeling.
Mimi: That is interesting, that is as direct a contact as you can get!
Madison: I know, I know .So, like a brush, I have many brushes , so this is a brush and with a brush you can do a lot and I might do a little bit , like I might do an overall gesture with a brush but really the brush is so limiting because you have to have so many brushes for so many different things that I’ve found that with my hand I can do really fine lines with the edge of my nail , you know the hand can really replace all those brushes ,plus for me painting is almost like sculpture the way I can build up an oil painting and what I paint , it brings me to this other dimension , so it is a dialogue . I’ll make a move; it’s sort of a chess game. I’ll make a move and then I will stand back and look at it and the canvas will tell me something about that move and then I will get back in and start making a move, an hour or two will pass, so I become in a way the painting.
Mimi: Do you stand back and look as your working in the process?
Madison: I do, I do
Mimi: So you take breaks in-between and look
Madison: Yes, I might just make a move and go back right away and look and then something will happen, an idea and then information will inform me and then I will make another move. A lot of times when I am doing a painting, there are different stages and there are different stages I really like. The trick is not to mess those up or I will paint over them and I will have this sort of heart loss of, like maybe I should have kept it but then in the end it just builds up so there is some uncertainty every time I paint even though I have done paintings for most of my life and for the last fifteen years of my life I have been very prolific at painting.
Mimi: Do you have a direct vision before painting? Before you start do you see the image on the canvas, or does it just start evolving as you work?
Madison: I think it evolves. I’ve tried to do pieces where I start. With the German expressionism it is about emotion, lately I have been combining that with social issues. I might get an idea but a lot of times an idea might come after I make the move. A lot of my work had female characters in the work.
Mimi: Why is that?
Madison: I think that the female voice is a voice that is under represented.
Mimi: Do you think it is an even playing field now for men and women in the art world?
Madison: What I dislike in any aspect of the world which is this idea of men and women which is gender essentially is using the term Men and Women and in one way woman’s groups will say “well we identify woman because they are underrepresented “
Mimi: So you prefer people
Madison: People. My work speaks for itself and when you look at the work, you don’t get the idea that it is painted by a woman or a man and I am very serious about my oil paintings in the past and even today I think there’s less tolerance in the art world for woman. I am a huge advocate for woman, although I think women really need to step up and just do the work. Like for instance the show at SAM right now, in one way I think it is great and in another way I think , I didn’t like the advertising ,it shows a women with a knife or scissors in the kitchen , so I think when a man looks at that they probably saying something like “oh shit !’ and covering there penis . That is such a stereo typical thing and this sort of fear about woman. Really I just wish, there are a lot of strong women artists and there always has been and I think many of us just prefer to do the work. I think it is better if it is just about the work, just about a show, I think you get the idea that it is a woman by the name usually and then when you show up for the show of course you will meet the artist . I think that when it is labeled there is less tolerance from the male majority, like what the democrats go through with the Republicans. I think the playing field is more level than it has been , but I think as long as there is an identification of men , ok for instance , they never have a men’s how or they never say this is a man’s show but they always have to put ,this is a woman because she is the underrepresented and that is bullshit because women are very strong and it takes men and women to make the world , so let’s just get over this gender issue and get on with the business of being human .
Mimi: So, do you feel competitive in the art world or do you do art just because it is in you and you have to paint?
Madison: I just have to paint, I feel the competition that is out there because I apply for grants and I apply for shows, the same as other artists do and there is a lot of competition, I think most of the competition is mostly male driven as it is in many aspects of life, here we go with this male female thing again. I don’t paint commercially, I’m not trying to paint works that sell ,I’m trying to change the world more or less with art and pacify myself , I’ve always painted ,it has been my closest companion, friend at times through my childhood and adolescence ,it has been my main vehicle for conveying to the world , it is my communication .If you really want to know about me , look at the paintings , much of the work is dealing with my emotions ,it is very emotional for me , it is very personal for me and it is an experience for me that is necessary.
Mimi: So it’s like food!
Madison: yes, it is like food. If I didn’t paint, I’m sure I would die
Mimi: or starve
Madison: I would starve to death, I’m sure I would, it’s in me. The competition, I wish it wasn’t there; I wish we could be more of a one community and find a way to do art non- competitively
Mimi: Tell me about teaching; you said you were going to start a school of painting.
Madison: I’m going to start a school, it is something I have always wanted to do, it is a vision I have had since 2000. It will be called “Be Art” school what it entails will be reforming the Bauhaus in America ,in contemporary society and having a school that would allow architecture and all the arts to be under one roof and to interact with each other, be a part of each other , where a painter could go to an architect studio and we could actually envision and design a building together or a musician could come in and do that and it wouldn’t be well you didn’t go to school for architecture because the school would be an art school .
Mimi: So, more intuitive
Madison: More intuitive. The merging of art and architecture and design since the Bauhaus it has really been separated.
Mimi: So, what is your connection to the Bauhaus?
Madison: My connection with the Bauhaus is it is my favorite chapter.
Mimi: Why is that?
Madison: I think there are a lot of great ideas there, for one; one of the ideas is to rid the designer of preconceptions. Basically it was a combination of design and architecture. The reason I started doing architecture was, as a child I would look at buildings and I could see that proportionally they didn’t work. Intuitively I was always a designer. Backing up, all I ever want to do is paint and since I was five all I ever wanted to do was paint. When I graduated from high school , my parents felt I needed to get a career , so , the only career I felt I could probably do drafting as it involved drawing and I could do that eight hours a day without losing my mind . So. I went to school for drafting, it was a well rounded program that covered all aspects of architecture and design. I excelled in that and I was on the dean’s list and I did very well and won them awards. I then started working as a drafter and mentors and owners of firms would see my design talent and then I started becoming a designer. That is how I got into architecture, I did take some classes at the university of Minnesota and I also went to school and started that process of my education at Southern California state of architecture but I didn’t finish .I was on that path for architecture and just learned by doing . Going back to childhood also I was always sensitive to buildings that were not built well, getting back to the Bauhaus that is necessary because it is a better way to do buildings for society and buildings are ultimately for society. The public is a huge part. I think one of the main drawbacks with current architecture is buildings are built a lot with the ego of the architect and less with the public in mind and the design and review board that the architects go for , rather they have to go through , they have a lot of disdain for . Really the whole process is just to make a better building for society because there are multiple people involved and have a vested interest in and the architects typically do not want to give an inch of that up. I think Bauhaus would re infuse that and let people know these great moments in history only have died because we have allowed them to die
Mimi: So, in your school you will be incorporating this
Madison: Yes I will be incorporating that.
Mimi: So, tell me about the music, you play music? I play guitar, I play piano, I play keyboards and I play trumpet.
Mimi: Do you sing?
Madison: a little bit, not too much.
Mimi: Do you play with other people?
Madison: I do sometimes, sometimes I jam, we have jam sessions but mainly I use it to keep me in check
Mimi: Do you want to play something?
Madison: Yes, I could play something, hell yeah! You can ask me some more questions while I tune, that will be fine.
Mimi: So obviously art is an emotional outlet for you.
Madison: Yes and so is music. Like when I become really angry one of the best things I can do and the best way I can get that anger out of me is grabbing this guitar and just playing it really hard. Usually after a couple of minutes, I don’t have the anger anymore.
Mimi: Do you listen to music while you are painting?
Madison: Very rarely
Mimi: So you like it quiet
Madison: Not quiet, I usually get the street noise
Mimi: So that is your music
Madison: I’m real keen on what’s going on in the environment ,sometimes just screaming , sometimes people in fights ,busses , cars .
Mimi: Like you said “the urban experience “
Madison: real gritty and real urban. Even when I did architecture, I preferred to not have music. It helps me concentrate just to not have music.
Mimi: How important do you think social media is in presenting your work? Do you think? On Face book for instance, do they notice your work? Do you get shows from people seeing your work on Face book or on other social media?
Madison: I think it is really important. I haven’t really gotten a show from Face book but it has been important to me to infuse myself into the art community because that’s how many artists that I haven’t met , know of me . We have actually started dialogues with critiques. I will look at some of their paintings and give a critique and a lot of times what they hear is so different from what others say that it is a positive thing and then they will give me critiques of my work which is right on . My work is really taking off now and I think that social media is a part of it. I think social media is really important for a visual artist. It is almost more important than my web site. Many more people go to Facebook and for me, I have a Word press web site, so for me it is actually easier to upload and update with Face book. I think it will actually start replacing people’s web sites. I think it is really important and I really hated it at first. Right now it is critical for me to be in the art community. A lot of times first Thursday, I will have a show and I can’t go out to other shows and see other artists because I have to represent my art work. When I am in the studio, I am either doing elements of my business as an art business or painting. So, I rarely get out, I don’t get out too much.
Mimi: So that gives you a window to the world
Madison: Unfortunately, that has become my window to the world.
Mimi: I think that is true for a lot of people. Now play me something.
This is my next question, if you could build a weather proof building out of paintings what would it look like and what style of architecture would it be?
Madison: Wow! Well it wouldn’t look conventional that’s for sure. It would be very sculptural. Right now what I am looking at doing is doing paintings where I build canvases and I will build multiple pieces of canvases then have paintings in between, so it is very sculptural and very architectural. It is interesting that you bring that question up because it is kind of a natural transition to go from that then what would that be a building as a painting . I think it would be very sculptural, I think that the style would be contemporary. It would be of our place and time.
Mimi: Would it be one continuous painting or would it be lots of panels of different paintings?
Madison: Well, if I had a choice, I would like to try both, to see which one I like the best. I think both are interesting. I also think what is interesting is building architecture built on a form that takes its cue from a painting, so maybe from a distance or up in the air, it would look as a form taken from a painting. It is very interesting and I think very doable to do the skin of a building out of canvas and paint. Once the oil actually infuses, it is fairly waterproof.
Mimi: Yes, oil paint is very durable
Madison: Oil based paint is used on exteriors of homes anyway. It really becomes question of how do you heat it and insulate it
Mimi: And make it fireproof
Madison: make it fireproof that is probably the biggest downside because it definitely is not fireproof.
Mimi: Why did you choose pizza today? I made you pizza; you were very specific about what you wanted.
Madison: Pizza is my favorite food
Mimi: it is!
Madison: It always has been. This pizza is really wonderful; my favorite ingredients are thinner crust, pizza sauce, mozzarella of course, kalamata olives, basil and roasted garlic. It is very good.
Mimi: Now , I think I need to know what is up and coming and I think you have a lot of things up and coming , so tell me about that .
Madison: Right now I have a really great show at Cox gallery at the 619 building that is on first avenue south. I have the Poco wine room, in January I will be doing my solo show there. I have a piece of art work that is going to be travelling with an exhibition by Art Ability fair which is artists that have disabilities and that will be a touring show . I just recently had my photograph taken, my portrait will be in a book of creative people, my picture will actually be blown up to be 30 x 40 and it is going to be in a show in Boston. It is exciting. Things are really exciting for me. I was just quoted in the Stranger this week. Things are good and they are happening, so I am riding a great wave in the Seattle art community. I am just working on keeping the momentum.
Mimi: Very good. Well, it was a pleasure to talk to you Madison.
Madison: Thank you it has been a pleasure.
1 pound {or about 3 ½ cups} high gluten flour
¾ cup warm water
1tablespoon vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
1 /12 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
In a heavy duty stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar. Mix thoroughly until yeast has fully dissolved. Add flour and mix on low speed until all of the flour and water have mixed and a stiff dough ball forms, about three to four minutes. Stop mixing as soon as the sough ball forms as this type of dough should not be kneaded.
Place the dough ball into a large bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for twenty four hours in the fridge before using. The twenty four hour rise is very important this will add flavor and texture.
Tomato sauce for pizza
I like the San Marzano tinned tomatoes
Fresh basil, oregano and a little sugar
Onion
caramelize the onion in olive oil and a little sugar , add basil and oregano , pepper and salt
Add tomatoes and cook for about ten minutes.
Tips for baking
When using a pizza stone put it on the very top rack of the oven {remember, heat rises}
Scoring the pizza crust before baking with a fork will give you a flat even base
Cook at a very high heat for a crisp crust
You can pre bake the crust for a short time before adding the toppings