Photo of Laura Madeleine in her studio by C. Nancy Evans. Hat designed and made by Cole Pritchard of Studio 217
The Artist
Laura Madeleine has been an exhibiting fine artist for a very long time. She has worked exclusively in the technique based on batik, or wax resist, that she developed for over two decades. Laura Madeleine is a fine artist activist, and teacher. She makes paintings in batik technique mostly on silk, rarely on wool.
She is also curator and executive director of the activist art project Souls Shot: Portraits of Victims of Gun Violence.
A solo exhibition of her recent work was mounted at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, April 2022.
A solo exhibition of her recent work was mounted at the gallery at The Hill in Whitemarsh, PA 2020. Other works have appeared in:
Woodmere Art Museum’s Annual Juried Show 2021
Pennsylvania State Museum, Art of the State 2020-21.
Solo exhibition called Waxing Poetic 2012 accompanied by ekphrastic poems and inspiring a song cycle by composer Kile Smith. In This Blue Room presented by Lyric Fest.
Laura studied art at universities here and abroad and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in Art History and Art Education from the College of Fine Arts, Ohio University. She recently spent two months in residence at the Textil Center in Blonduos, Iceland.
Her works have shown at the Rosenfeld Gallery, who represented her until their closing, in Old City Philadelphia, and at the Woodmere Art Museum, winning the Rochelle Boonshaft Portrait Prize in 2009, Charles Knox Smith Founder’s Prize in 2006 and the Woodmere Endowment Fund Memorial Prize in 2005. In addition she has received awards for exhibited works from The Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Plastic Club, MGOPA, Wayne Art Center, ACX, Allens Lane Art Center and Artists Equity.
Her work has been shown at B-Square Gallery, Art of the State in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania State Museum, Lancaster Museum of Art, The Sketch Club, Fireside Gallery, Nichols Berg Gallery, Main Line Art Center, Fleischer Art Memorial, Goggleworks, and more. Her work is in collections here and abroad.
She has taught art and art appreciation/history to pre-schoolers through adults in numerous venues.
She has experience as a graphic designer, art director and illustrator winning numerous awards from such publications as Print and The Illustrators Club, Art Directors Annual, National Geographic Society, AIGA and more.
Bosom Friends
“My work is a reverent, poetic approach to creating interesting and detailed worlds on silk.
The luminous fabric is a joy to work on and watching the colors of the dyes spread as they are absorbed is transfixing. The molten wax, as resist, is warm and flexible and creates another dimension to the experience. The craft of batik becomes a fine art.
The paintings are an homage to detail. Paying attention to the beauty of the decorations of the world is my inspiration. Details from folk art from various cultures, miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, and textile design have all influenced my work. I have traveled extensively and studied abroad and have a love of the decoration of life. I am never without a sketch book to record a pattern on a floor tile, the shadow made by someone’s nose, the shape of a beautiful leaf, a character in an alphabet. The inclusion of faces in every painting plays the important role of inviting the viewer to enter a lush, fantastic world.
I am also fascinated with the symbolism behind some decorative motifs and the forms of characters in written language. I frequently invent characters to represent letters and include code messages in my work. I often destroy the key to alphabet/code. I want viewers to be a bit mystified and engaged when looking at my work. I would like my paintings to interest the viewer every time they look at it.”
Gluestick and Toaster the studio assistants taking a well deserved break.