Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Madeline Arnault. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Madeline, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In the summer of 2018 I created an installation for the LA County fair, titled Touching Distance. The fair was Route 66 themed and, quite amazingly, I had spent a few days in August 2017 driving from Cape Cod, MA to Pomona, CA with my father. We followed the old Route 66 for part of the way. The installation meant I could go back to a year before and revisit the memories Dad and I made driving cross country in a red car stuffed with my sewing machines and thread collection. For the project I picked a moment in the Petrified Forest National Park where old Rt 66 crosses the park. We made a detour on our trip specifically to see the park.

The installation consisted of three large wall quilts and multiple quilted elements crossing the space. One wall quilt was made from mostly denim. To acquire enough denim scraps I traded with other artists in the area, loaves of beer bread for old jeans. Batting material was given to me by a mattress company in Ontario, CA. The company had started a program giving offcuts and scrap material to artists rather than throwing it in the trash. When I created the installation, I was a student in the MFA program at Claremont Graduate University. The art department graciously allowed me to use the department’s gallery space as a studio to create the large-scale works. The project married my memories of a past event with the community I had already started to build in my new home.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a textile artist from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I moved to Pomona in the summer of 2017 to attend Claremont Graduate University and find a new art community. I work with fibers of many kinds to create abstract wall hangings and sculptures. The works I create are based on items and experiences in my life, transformed from my imagination into a physical object.

I grew up in an artistic family. Both parents were active in the theater community and very willing to encourage my artistic endeavors. Sewing caught me early on and I developed interests in weaving, knitting, lace making, felting, and dyeing. With so many ways to play with fiber it was an easy medium to develop my artistic aesthetic.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

My most important aspect as an artist is making things. Not all that you make is art and not all of your art is good or worth showing to anyone but if you don’t make it you’ll never progress. As an artist I constantly have a project going. Something art-worthy or for the home or for a friend or even a baking adventure that may or may not end up in the trash. So many of my favorite pieces have come from failed projects or projects that stopped and started a dozen times. Sure, showing my work is wonderful. I love when people admire my work and I’m absolutely thrilled whenever a piece is sold. But that work can’t come about if I never make it.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

The goal driving much of what I do is translation. Translating my thoughts into tangible objects I can hang in space or on a wall, or place in someone’s hand. I need to get the ideas out of my head and into the wide world so others can see how I experience life. Everyone sees the world, walks through the world, so differently, that explaining our individual lives becomes infinitely complex. Artwork is my way of hammering the point home. I know my goal has been accomplished when a viewer spends time observing a piece. While the artwork is my thoughts and feeling, it doesn’t need to be understandable in a literal way to be understood – it just needs to make the observer experience their understanding. And that perceived understanding is the life that my artwork (and by extension my thoughts/imagination/experiences) creates for itself.

Contact Info:

• Website: madelinearnault.com
• Instagram: @madimaud

Image Credits
Madeline Arnault