We were lucky to catch up with Maddie Ulbricht recently and have shared our conversation below.

Maddie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was your school or training experience like? Share an anecdote or two that you feel illustrate important aspects or the overall nature of your schooling/training experience.

I hadn’t enjoyed school very much until I had gotten to college. I was a mentally ill teenager with a bleak outlook on life. I felt like I was surrounded by people who didn’t share or respect my passion in art. It was the polar opposite once I started at Northern Kentucky University (NKU) in 2019. It was refreshing being surrounded by fellow creatives. The professors at the School of the Arts (SOTA) all took such an attentive interest in my growth as an artist. It was during college when I decided to take the leap and dedicate my studies to Spatial Arts.

I still remember my anxieties about feeling like I was “shooting myself in the foot” by studying mediums I had no experience in. I remember Steven Finke, my sculptor professor at the time, walking up to me. He spoke to me about my ambitions in life. I was so nervous because I always felt like I needed to justify my passions. Then I remember he told me “I see you putting in the effort. If you continue putting in the effort like you are, you can do it. You can make it.”. From then on I hit the ground running!

NKU and SOTA also really gave me a second family. I remember my last weeks at NKU. Cleaning the studio and packing up my space with my friends. The Sculpture and Ceramic building is where we had laughed, made art, and grown together. We traded supplies and knowledge and even now we still do. The friendships you form with fellow artists are everything. Those friends I met there truly do mean the world to me.

Maddie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello everyone! My name is Maddie Ulbricht and I am 23 year old Artist from Northern Kentucky. While professionally I work as a Software Support Associate for a medical billing company from 9-5 every day, I’m drawing in a sketchbook any free moment I get.

Currently I offer 2D commissions. I primarily work in Watercolor and digital art, I typically work in an whimsical illustrative style, but I am known to revisit realism from time to time! I can be found on a plethora of Social media platforms under the handle @hun_bun_bee. I can also be reached at my business email hunbunbee.mu@gmail.com.

Once I get a bit more settled into post-grad life, I look forward to reuniting with clay and creating pottery and sculptures!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

If fought many battles with myself through the years. My mental health is a fickle thing that I’ve had to learn to nurture. I came to NKU a very depressed individual. I felt as though I had no purpose and that I was suffering because I was meant to suffer. Even with these dark thoughts clouding my head I had always managed to hold on to the hope that my situation could improve. With the community I found in college and my support system, I was able to find myself to a much healthier mindset.

Its very easy to look back on your past self and focus in on all the things they did wrong, the regrets, and the moments that make you cringe. I do all of that plenty, but I also look back on the past me. I am thankful that she gave me the chance to keep going. I am happy to give her the life she wanted. This is why a lot of my artwork is in relation to my mental health, my identity, and my past self.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve always been a staunch rule follower. One may not think it by looking at me, since I have tattoos and a loud (often vulgar) mouth, but in school I followed every instruction to a T. This continued into college when I began learning ceramics. I learned that ceramics were polished, perfect, and glazed. The craft of ultimate discipline.

I began to have this building frustration that I just could not get my surfaces to come out the way I wanted. The color either too dull, wrong hue, or frustratingly shiny. I’d also spend so much time trying to roll the perfect coil as I was building any sculpture. The perfectly smooth and even coil alluded me (and still does). This method of working was good practice, but was not a time efficient for a student with deadlines to meet.

That is when professor Joshua Maier came rolling into my artistic journey. I remember complaining to him one day about how much I hated glaze sometimes, how it never gave me the perfect color.

“Just paint it”. He said plainly.

My mind was blown by such a symbol notion, but I took that as all the permission I needed to break out my acrylic brushes. I even learned to control the surface treatment by using different poly-acrylics! Josh also taught me the very delicate art of squeezing out monstrous coils from blocks of clay. My work grew much taller, much faster, and much more colorful after I was able to let go of what I ‘thought’ a ceramic should be! I think this has also inspired me to view all art with a similar mindset. I will think about what limitations I am putting on myself and how I can break them!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hun_bun_bee/?hl=en
• Twitter: https://x.com/hun_bun_bee
• Other: Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/hun-bun-bee
  Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/hun-bun-bee.bsky.social