Meet Madeleine Soloway | Artist, Art Portfolio Advisor, Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Madeleine Soloway and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeleine, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
On some level throughout my life, I have always been involved in some form or other in a creative practice. As a young child, I set up a corner of my bedroom with an “art table”, more interested in imaginative assemblages, rather than traditional drawing. By the time I entered high school in the late 1960, the progressive education movement was fully incorporated into Massachusetts’s Newton Public Schools and the art programs were well funded and enthusiastically supported. In high school, I found refuge in the art room and thrived in the creative environment spending long hours creating environmental sculptures and silver jewelry. When it was time for the college application process, my parents, both scientists by training were clueless about guiding me. I didn’t fit the model they understood so I started off my college experience at Northeastern University, studying humanities classes as an undeclared major. After a couple of years, and missing my creative practice, I transferred to Massachusetts College of Art, initially starting out as a photography major, but later switched to the sculpture department where I received enthusiastic support, and began exhibiting my work. After a year of waiting tables post -graduation from Mass. Art, I was accepted into the graduate program at Washington University in St. Louis as a Sculpture and Printmaking major. I was hoping to land a college teaching position upon graduation, but when that didn’t materialize, I moved to San Francisco, working a variety of jobs while maintaining an active art studio practice in the evenings and on weekends. In 1983, a major SF art gallery included my work in a group show. It was the first of my many art exhibitions in the 1980’s. Within a few years my work was exhibited in a number of art galleries up and down the west coast and I began working full time in my studio, selling my artwork, and regularly exhibiting. When a career change brought my then husband to Gainesville, Georgia in 1990, my active exhibition schedule slowed dramatically. Shortly after relocating to Georgia, I began a 29-year art teaching career at Pace Academy (4 years) and Paideia School (25 years), while maintaining an ongoing art practice. I was often found working along with my high school students in art classes, creating prints using a variety of techniques and incorporating photographic images into the work. It was deeply rewarding modeling my active and engaging art career for my students. Over the years I have exhibited my work in a number of local museums and galleries throughout Georgia. At the end of this school year, I retired from teaching and am excited to fully focus on my studio practice and exhibitions. My work was recently accepted for exhibition with The Shim Group on Artsy and am eager to explore online exhibition and sale opportunities, exposing me to a broader audience.

I have always been motivated by personal artistic expression and I can’t imagine any other life other than a creative life. As an artist I am stimulated by the challenges of looking at the world through many different lenses. I am motivated by ideas, material and process, always pushing the boundaries of what is in front of me.

In my current art practice, I use photography and printmaking to fabricate evocative narratives that conjure an implied sense of history and memory. I explore universal and intimate themes relating to the transience of life and the cyclical nature of the human experience. Houses, trees, water, urban decay, shadowy figures appear frequently in my work and are recombined in ways that examine the interplay between past and present, conscious and subconscious, permanency and fragility, evolution and transformation. My intent is always to raise questions about the shared nature of our human experience.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
It hasn’t been easy, but I have been told my superpowers are being persistent, determined, ambitious, enthusiastic, and curious.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Love the BeltLine! It is like a sea of humanity flowing through the city. I love the different feel, architecture, character, vibe, and transitions between the neighborhoods.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My amazing family!

Website: www.madeleinesoloway.com

Instagram: madeleine_soloway

Linkedin: Madeleine Soloway

Facebook: Madeleine Soloway

Other: https://www.artsy.net/artist/madeleine-soloway

Image Credits
Madeleine Soloway