Bio

Born in Vancouver, Joanne Madeley completed her BFA with a major in printmaking in Montreal at Concordia University.  She has exhibited across Canada and the United States and she recently completed a screen printing residency in Lendava, Slovenia, Berkeley California, and took a course on Mokuhanga printmaking in Japan.  She lives in Edmonton where she divides her time exploring the city and making artwork.

About

As a child I spent countless hours collecting paper ephemera and found objects that interested me.  I surrounded myself with things from the world around me that lifted my spirit and helped to summon a creative space in my mind. This creative space was a place without the words to explain itself, where ideas jumped into my head and I lost track of time.  This was a place where I was free to try out ideas with my hands until they simply looked right.  My everyday life as a child not only invited a creative state of mind to appear, but also afforded me the time to explore such a state.

My art practice now seeks to recapture this state of mind. As an adult I still collect a large amount of ephemera that strike a creative chord, and I look for magic and adventure in everyday life.  However, my pool of inspiration has expanded to include more abstract ideas gleaned from my daily travels. My sources of inspiration have grown to include the city I live in and my sense of place, as well as my community and the people within it.  Conversations, emotional experiences, and thought processes show up in my artwork too so that each piece of art has a story behind it.