Description of Work

Lotus - 2020 - Acrylic Gouache - $300

Artist's Statement

For most of my life, I have been deeply in love with storytelling. In particular, visual storytelling and illustrative artwork have been staples of both my artistic creation and consumption from a very young age. The resulting artwork is a direct expression of personal thoughts, feelings, and ideas through the creation of illustrated scenes that can be shared with and interpreted by others. Rather than putting emphasis on the creation of a body of work focusing on an overarching theme or subject, each illustration is treated as an individual, crafted with its own unique story, themes, and influences.

Focusing on the individuality of each piece allows for a further development of the artist’s hand and style, as there is no shared theme to be used as an anchor for connecting the works. This approach leaves much more freedom for the work to grow and evolve, starting with its own unique idea and sometimes ending somewhere completely new. The end result is a much larger variety of imagery and storytelling that can be explored, as the open-ended process easily accommodates new ideas as they are conceived. Influences for the work can come from anywhere; an illustration printed on the side of a tea canister, imagery from dreams and nightmares, or media consumption, which are then put through a series of revisions before arriving at their final states.

This approach to the work has developed alongside a rapidly-growing personal interest in decorative art and its shared history with illustration. Victorian era illustrators such as Alphonse Mucha and Henry Justice Ford, as well as modern artists James Jean and Tomer Hanuka have been used to influence the work. The mix of classic and contemporary artists has become a key source of research to inform the process and stylistic development of each illustration, creating a melting pot of narrative imagery that is vibrant and engaging.

Link to Artist's Website: https://madisonsmileyart.com/

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)