by Michael D. Wynne
It never ceases to amaze me of the bountiful talent and rich imagination of the great people of Cenla. In this month’s column, I want to highlight one of the very best artists that I have ever met, of which the roots of her unique subject matter date back to the 8th century of the Shinto religion, a religion that worshiped their ancestors and nature.
And this artist, who you will be hearing a lot more about in the future, is none other than the soon-to-be great, Madilyn “Maddie” Anderson.
A graduate of Central High School with a BA later in Art History from LSU, Madilyn was originally raised in the small community of Central, Louisiana located just outside of Baton Rouge. Madilyn’s background at first glance would seem quite inauspicious. But by the time she was seven years old, she knew that she was going to become a professional artist.
“I have always made art and have always enjoyed art; I really cannot imagine a life without art in it.”
Her supportive parents started her first with step-by-step art books at a very young age but she ignored the books’ prologue and would just jump to complete the final art projects. In her freshman year of high school, her art teacher recommended that she enter the “Talented Art Program” to assess her skills and abilities in art. Normally a difficult test with the added requirement of creating an original piece of art, Madilyn passed the assessment easily and was on the road to becoming an artist.
In college, Madilyn took a broad field of courses including one even dealing with the science of dinosaurs so that she would be ultimately prepared for any possible career dealing with art from working at museums to teaching art. She was also looking for her own personal genre of art to work in and become a master.
At first, she collected a wide range of animal skulls (yes, animal skulls!) to draw from but later found this to be actually a common art genre. Finally she chose a rather difficult but amazing field of art that has less than a dozen true experts in the world, the field of “Ukiyo-e.” Although very difficult to fully explain in this short column, Ukiyo-e is a particular style of prints from Edo (meaning “pictures of a floating world”). Ukiyo-e is also a popular topic with many Asian art curators and covers Kabuki, Landscapes, Geisha culture, depictions of heroes and legendary figures, etc.
“Noh Theater” is the Japanese aristocratic theater style rather than the decorative, almost gaudy, Kabuki style of art. The Kabuki style is much more outlandish with the characters even wearing face paint. Noh Theater, Madilyn’s particular passion, is a very subtle theater form – it reduces all movements and emotions to the most necessary actions. In Madilyn’s sketchbook, she makes her drawings only using a sharpie pen in order to only use lines and to make her drawing choices more deliberate. Her “line-work,” as she calls it, is now something that she has become a master of and has been complimented by many experts in this art field.
Along with her art, Madilyn has become an expert in print-making, a most rigorous and difficult field, of which she makes her own prints of her work. The goal of her print-making is Linocut, the same technique as wood block print-making, in which she uses a knife to, in essence, “gouge” the medium in order to make her prints.
Madilyn says that she owes much to her teachers and to her husband for their support in her career. At this time, she is competing in the most important art contest of its kind in the world located in Japan where her artwork is currently exhibited and admired
One day, Central Louisiana will be very proud to be called the home to this master artist, Madilyn Anderson!
