We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Madeline K Barry a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Madeline, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking risk is something quite familiar to me. I think my parents took a lot of risks, at least I remember my childhood being that way. It has stuck with me closely into adulthood- this way of living where you rely on hope itself to craft your future.

My entire career was a risk. I think everyone probably feels that way about their careers, and I think that’s probably the truth for most people. There’s something risky about going after anything that your heart deeply wants; the risk of disappointment, embarrassment, mediocrity, failure.

I decided to start my business in 2019 after moving back to the United States from Belgium. I had spent a couple of years in a mentorship outside of Brussels alongside artists from around the world. It was the closest thing to formal training I’ve had in the arts. When I made the choice to release my first collection of paintings in the U.S., I knew it was a risk but I didn’t know how that I was choosing to change my entire life. I was a self-taught painter making abstract acrylic portraits in a city I had connections in, with virtually no money to my name. I had no money to invest in getting my business off the ground, no studio, no training, no connections in the art industry, and a tiny corner in the room I was living in to make my work. I had spent months waffling about my decision and was desperately job searching for something more “professional” that would give me an excuse not to take this crazy risk. And then the world stood still.

All hiring opportunities I was hoping for were frozen. Spring of 2020 brought a choice for me to make, as it did for many of us. My decision to sell art full-time was either going to leave me broke and back at square 1, or I would make it- even if the road was rocky.

I decided to pour my fullest self into that first collection and 3 more after that, marketing mostly on Instagram. To my surprise, I sold painting after painting. From there, the commissions began flowing in, and I found myself with more work than I could handle. 2020 was truly one for the books.

When I experience dry seasons, I often find myself day dreaming of 2020 and the work that was flowing in. I think it’s important for us to realize that the rewards of our risks matter even if the progress isn’t a straight line up and to the right. This is a wild journey we’re on, and we have to continue to take risks in order to see breakthrough.

Madeline, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a muralist, live event painter, and commission artist based in Atlanta, GA. I have been honing my skills in mixed media abstract portraiture since 2016, working primarily with acrylic and charcoal on canvas. I explore the complex nature of women and the way it evolves as a result of negative and positive experiences. In my feminine portraits, I focus on portraying deep emotions with the aim to shed light on the truth that women can (and were meant to) be many things at once. Resilient and empathetic. Brilliant and sexy. Nurturing and hardworking.

I studied at the Academie Mechelen in Belgium. A part of the O.M. Art Collective, I expanded my career first through live painting performance at conferences and events before continuing with solo and group exhibitions throughout Belgium, Germany, and later the U.S. Collaborating with artists locally and internationally, I find much of her inspiration through individual stories from women around the world.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I want to give women permission to be their full selves. The world we live in all-too-often seeks to pigeon hole women. It urges us to find one thing we want to do with our lives, get really good at it, make it our entire identity, and change the world with it. I believe this is firstly incredibly unrealistic, and ultimately damaging to the true nature of women. I believe we impact the world best by who we are, rather than what we do.

We are made to move, evolve, change, based on what our life asks of us. It is a feminine superpower. My goal is to offer women the freedom to be unapologetically who they must be in a certain moment, to float fluidly in and out of the many identities we hold within ourselves.

I want to reach the career woman who fears she could never be a good mother, the mother who feels that she could never have a dream of her own. I hope to impact the mature woman, invite her to throw off the shame that settled each time she changed course throughout her life. I hope the young woman who is obsessed with finding her personal “brand” can breathe a little deeper knowing she is so much more beautifully complex than her social media could show.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

The best thing society can do is stop buying massed-produced art, home decor, and fashion.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a bargain myself, but the TJ Maxx, Walmarts, and Sheins of the world are hurting the consumer’s mindset about what quality goods truly are, and how much they should be paying for beautiful things. We as a society are expecting to get our goods for lower and lower prices. This robs the individual artists and the society as a whole because it disintegrates the relationship of consumers with the makers of their goods. People don’t care who made what they’re buying, they care only that they get it for the lowest price. The quality of goods is diminishing and the livelihoods of the makers is declining as well, many of which do not live in our country.

As we begin to go back to buying our goods directly from the people that make them, the profits can benefit the actual makers. This allows the makers to create the best product possible for the consumers and the cycle can continue.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.madelinekbarry.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/madelinekbarry
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/madelinekbarryfineart

Image Credits
Jessi Shirley, Mind and Soul Photography