Art & Life with Madeleine Lord

Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeleine Lord.

Madeleine, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I live in Dudley where I have plenty of room for my pre-art metal mess, piles carefully curated for potential spill all around the driveway. I have garden space for display and work full time as the welder-gardener-marketer-curator-transporter for my work.

I have made art all my life, now close to 70 I am retired and able to weld my figures, flowers and critters every day of the week. As an IT professional for 35 years I was limited to 52 days a year – but was still able to construct many public art works, including the 10′ Giraffe in front of the Federal Reserve in Boston, a 9/11 memorial in Whitensville MA ” the Enduring American. Spirit”, Revolutionary Figures for Fort Washington Park in Cambridge to name a few.

Before working in IT, I was a teacher, Studio Art, Animation and B&W photography. I hope to return to working with others all ages, to reach out to art starved folks to make things happen. I will be at the Fuller on August 10 family fun day to make metal sculptures with scraps and magnets. In the past I cut figures from flat sheets of steel, and have work in Dallas Texas, San Bernardo CA, Gary Indiana, Tiverton RI, Meredith NH, Cambridge and Whitensville MA in this style.

My current work is welded from scraps I select in metal disposal yards. The selection process is half the art – and work. This summer I have a “Donkey” in the Fitchburg Art Museum, part of the Arts Worcester E Pluribus Unum show, “Sheepish” and “Rocker” the Fuller Craft Museum, Welded Flowers in the Concord Art Association Power of the Flower exhibit, A figure titled “News” in a National America Now show at the Providence RI Art Club, several New England Sculpture Association (NESA) Sculpture shows – one in the Elm Brook Horticulture Garden in Natick, Newburyport Art Association, and an upcoming exhibit at the Newton Upper Fells Greenway with a group from Brookline n Amed Studio without Walls. I also exhibit in New Hampshire at the Millbrook Gallery in Concord, and Patricia Carega Gallery in Center Sandwich.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I am not immune to current events, and for the past two years I’ve been making figures in response – some are Archangels, some are survivors, some are victims. One named “Shot” won the best in show award at Cambridge Art Association bi-annual Blue show in 2017.

But there are scraps that beg to be whimsical critters, happy folk or luscious flowers. The scraps start the process – I pick them because they have intrigue, essence. The Giraffe, Donkey, Stag and Sheep all started with scraps that mimicked the head shape of these animals.

I hope to engage a viewer with the fun of seeing the transformation of a bicycle handlebar to a stag’s antlers, a Victorian iron fence detail to the tail of a donkey. I also work with the metaphor, taking discards deemed useless to make something lively, present, fully realized. We all need to feel that about ourselves, finding worth and vigor in response to felling belittled, discarded.

What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
I think that art has a big job to do and the Artist’s role is critical. Art that is compelling, visually intriguing, dramatic, and beautiful allows the viewer to consider tough topics in tough times. Art can provide a distillation of the times we live in and dramatize the urgency, be the clarion call to dig more deeply, to be present to our shared moment, and potentially engage. The key is making the art esthetically viewable, compelling, witty or ironic, to give the viewer a safe way to segue into the concept and intent of the piece.

Art can also give folks something to agree on, something that is compelling, entertaining, to align folks who may agree on very little, something to enjoy together. Experience of a share emotion about art may lead to discussions and hopefully tolerance and respect.

My works “Shot”. “Still Standing” “Core” and “Torso” are all about our current national disruption of identity and constitutional identity. My intent is to make heroic art, in the vein of the Roman to Renaissance styles – where the beauty of the results enables thought about the context. The. “Stag”, “Donkey”, “Sheepish”, “Rocker”, “Swan Lake” are whimsical, occasionally ironic. Hopefully these will lead to shared enjoyment among folks who may or may not share other beliefs.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I have permanent public art in Boston on the terrace of the Federal Reserve Bank, in Cambridge at Fort Washington, in Winchester MA on the library lawn and at the Lynch School, in Whitensville MA in the public Garden.

Summer Shows include the Fitchburg Art Museum. Fuller Craft Museum, Concord Art Association, and shows with New England Sculptors Assoc. (NESA) at the Elmbrook MA Horticulture Garden in Natick, Newburyport Art Association. I also show with the group Studios Without Walls, Newton Upper Falls. This Fall I will have work in Flying Hose Exhibit at the Pingree School in Hamilton MA and in the Old Frog Pond Sculpture Walk in Harvard MA.

Galleries in New England include Millbrook Pond Concord NH, Shaker Village Canterbury NH, Meredith NH Sculpture Walk and the Patricia Carega Gallery in Center Sandwich.

Contact Info:

• Address: Dudley, Ma
• Website: mlordsculpts.com
• Phone: 617 480 7230
• Email: madilord@gmail.com
• Instagram: madeleinelordmadimetal
• Facebook: Madeleine Lord

Image Credit:
Madeleine Lord
Chris Aldrich – personal photo

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