IG: @hunnybeepress

Familiar Flora & Fauna

Driven by emotional making, my work condenses the vast subject matter of family and love through imagery that evokes empathy, introspection, and affection. Through methods of printmaking such as intaglio, silkscreen, relief, letterpress, and lithography, I am able to use symbols such as vintage objects, bugs, plants and portraits to provoke the nostalgia and emotions I am feeling. While my emotions really drive me in my making process, it is not completely necessary for that to be understood by everyone who sees the work. I often use loose, natural, and bold linework in combination with pastel colors that remind me of the graphic qualities of the media I consumed as a child. This creates a fun, child-like wonder to my prints, but they are often much deeper than the surface level imagery. This is not always evident to the viewer because I want the prints to be able to be enjoyed in both understandings of the work, through my experiences and emotions behind the making of the imagery and of the imagery itself. I want them to be viewed and understood in both contexts for different audiences.

Bio

Alyssa Marie Madden is a printmaker and bookmaker who uses methods of making such as intaglio, silkscreen, relief, embroidery, and bookmaking. Driven by emotional making, her work condenses the vast subject matter of family and love through imagery that evokes empathy, introspection, and affection. Madden does this through symbols such as vintage objects, bugs, plants, and portraits. The presence of her hand in each step of the making process is extremely important to her as expressed in her loose, natural linework. She describes printmaking as “the long laborious process of feeling my emotions while doing what I love.”