Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeline Beaudry.
Madeline, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have been creating as long as I can remember. I studied art (mainly ceramic arts) in college while getting a degree in biology. After school, while working in healthcare I continued to work as a potter through the South County Art Association in Kingston, RI until I temporarily moved to the Mid-Atlantic for work. While working in clay I started making doll sculptures. This continued even after my move and became easier with the invention of air-dry clay. Today my dolls are completely hand sculpted, usually over a wire armature.
Through Doll making, I became familiar with the felting process and now, along with making the fabric for all my sculptures, I make a variety of wearable art pieces: scarves, shawls, hats, fingerless gloves, purses, eco-printed silk scarves, etc. Of late I have begun to paint with various types of ink. I use techniques with India and alcohol ink to create paintings and also papers to use in sculptures and for other projects such as bookbinding.
Here is my bio:
Madeline Beaudry is an artist living and working between Wyoming Rhode Island and DeLand, Florida. Having worked as a potter for many years, she moved to fiber arts, doll making and painting. “I see great similarity between clay and felt. Both are very tactile, require the addition of energy and both work with the artist in the creation of a piece”.
Her dolls are one of a kind, hand sculpted from air dry clay and most of the fabric used in them is handmade. “There is an amazing moment in the process of creating figurative sculpture when the piece takes on a life of its own and is looking back at you with its own presence. It is a moment of pure joy”.
Ms. Beaudry is a member of the Florida Women’s Art Association, The Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly, Rhode Island, The North East Feltmakers Guild and The Professional Doll Makers Art Guild. Her works are in many private collections throughout the country and her dolls have been published in Art Doll Quarterly. For more information contact maabeaudr@gmail.com or visit her Facebook page: Rue Magic Studio.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have always struggled with time. Very rarely am I without inspiration or motivation but often I am without sufficient time to really get into a project. For years I had to balance working full time, raising a family and finding time for art.
I love people, especially my family so I never really felt it was any kind of sacrifice, just a juggling act to do all the things I love. Retirement is a great gift! I have also struggled with the concept of moving doll making from a craft to an art. (whatever that difference is). Many times when people see my work they assume that I purchase the figure and just dress it. That is not true. Every piece is one of a kind, hand sculpted and hand painted.
Please tell us about Rue Magic Studio.
I am a studio artist so my company is just me. I am very grateful to be part of the Artists’ Cooperative of Westerly, The Professional Dollmaker’s Guild and the Florida Women’s Art Association. These organizations, along with providing a supportive community give me opportunities to show my work and grow professionally. In my work, whatever I do, I try to tell a story. My most recent show, “A Book of Hours” is an example.
See Explanation:
In my current exhibit, “A Book Of Hours”, I chose to highlight the many aspects of time and how it relates to our life as it progresses throughout the day.
When I was a very young woman in my 20’s, I spent a month at a Benedictine Abbey in upstate New York. It was a seminal experience in my life. I loved the daily rhythms of monastic life and was especially captivated by the practice of praying the hours in which monks gather a number of times each day to celebrate the gift of time, the gift of each day and the particular graces available to us as we move through the cycle of the in-between-time (Vigils), to morning (Lauds), to midday (Sext), to evening (Vespers), tonight (Compline).
These hours also move beyond the twenty-four-hour period to represent the five sacred directions, (the fifth being within), the seasons of the year, the span of a lifetime. My work for this show is built around these five times of the day when the monk’s pause, that is to say, move into the negative space of time, to celebrate, honor and give thanks for the multitude of gifts, challenges and experiences that are part of our human journey.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Majored in art in college continued on to a higher degree and made art my only career.
Contact Info:
- Address: 15 Corey Trail
- Phone: 4013682535
- Email: maabeaudr@gmail.com
- Facebook: Rue Magic Stidio
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