We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Madison Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Madison below.

Hi Madison, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve always been exploring art as a kid. I loved being creative and eventually grew interested in learning specific techniques through YouTube. I would watch people explain how color and value affect artwork. I would practice until I felt like I could produce the scene in my imagination onto canvas. I think each learning curve was essential to my art journey. There were times I would put too much pressure on myself to create something exactly as I pictured it in my mind, which led to negative perfectionism and a lack of motivation. Instead, I learned to paint what I felt and mimic those emotions with brushstrokes and texture. I believe channeling my emotions into my artwork has been the most essential element of my art process.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started out as a 16 year old artist in the midst of the 2020 covid pandemic. I spent my time painting and would post my work online. Some people eventually took interest in specific paintings and started asking for prices, so my parents helped me create an art business, MDSARTWORX. Since then, the world has picked back up and I got involved with local fairs, contests, and even galleries. The traction grew my confidence and I became able to explain my work to wider audiences, catering to all sorts of people who experienced similar feelings that I depicted in my work.
Not only do I love painting emotions, but I equally love storytelling. I’m obsessed with paintings that give me a scene to pick apart or make me imagine what happens next. I do many portraits celebrating beauty, mystery, soul, and diversity while also painting mystical and religious scenes that focus the viewer’s attention on both creation and the creator.
I am most proud of and grateful for my freedom to create whatever scene in whatever style I feel drawn to at the time. I am not enclosed in a box by any niche and am always learning. Art is a gigantic field to be enjoyed, and I am blessed to be able to participate in it.

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

I believe our society has forgotten to make the “mundane” beautiful. I love viewing older architectural and visual achievements that we keep preserved as world-renowned beauties. We study people like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci and marvel, as we should. But I believe we marvel in a strange way, as if no one else could ever reach such artistic talent. Instead of seeing creations of the past and being encouraged by what humans can accomplish, we freeze and stare. I believe society would benefit more if we recognized that there are kids who have the potential to be the greatest artists the world has ever seen. As most know, art is not always seen as an essential or highly encouraged field. Imagine if it was. Imagine if kids who took interest in art were immediately encouraged even more and had access to lessons and good teachers at the age Michelangelo had.
If society pushed and believed in artists to thrive, I believe they would. Push architects to not just make functional structures, but to take advice from other creatives in order to make things that the future will marvel at. Give painters platforms and commissions to make our world and spaces more beautiful. Create sculptures and carvings to give a space depth.
Our culture has a habit of only embracing art with a side-hug, as if it’s nervous. I believe that if we fully embraced the arts with both arms, the outcome would be far more positive than we imagine.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I feel driven mostly by gratitude for the gift of creation and by the type of communication art offers me. I have been blessed with any and all artistic talent I have. I may study and practice all day, but in the end, I am only a person. I do art to celebrate both the gift and the one who has given it to me. Art allows me to say things I don’t have words for. Painting explains feelings I can’t describe directly. As an emotional person, I use art to express both the highs and the lows of life.

Contact Info:

• Website: MDSARTWORX.COM
• Instagram: @mdsartworx
• Facebook: @mdsartworx