Born 1973
BA, General Studies in the Humanities, University of Chicago
ABD, Philosophy, City University of New York

I began selling my photographs in 2008. Some shows and events include:

Morning Calm Gallery, New York City, 2008
Gracie Square Art Show, New York City, October 2008
San Carlos Arts Festival, April 2009
Burlingame Art in the Park June 13-14 2009
Oakland/Montclair Fine Arts Festival June 26-28 2009
Redwood City “Art on the Square,” July 24 2009
Truckee Arts & Crafts Festival August 8-9 2009
Walnut Creek Arts & Crafts Festival, September 25-27 2009
Menlo Park Arts & Crafts Festival October 16-18 2009
Pacific Arts League “Portfolio Show” Palo Alto, December 2009
Imagekind.com featured artist, September 7th, 2009

Artist Statement:

The overarching theme of my work is “Wonder Illuminated”. Aristotle said that philosophy is born of wonder: the same holds true of photography. My photos are about discovery and exploration, about the layered nature of the human experience, and the inexhaustible intricacy, beauty, and mystery of our world.

My abstract and contemporary work examines and celebrates the formal qualities of our world: movement, rhythm, color, and structure. I find myself especially drawn to the “musicality” of certain visual experiences. In some cases I find it especially refreshing to treat these formal features of our world as they come to us, naked and unencumbered by the burden of serving a representational aim, of being forced to be some identifiable “thing”. Yet because of their very openness, abstract works invite and tempt us to interpretation and further imaginative engagement. This tension then between allowing the object to “just be” and the desire or compulsion to fit it into an interpretive scheme is part of what I enjoy both in creating and viewing abstract work.

The works featured in this particular show are representative of several ongoing “projects” in which I am involved. Doran Sunset and Parabola #4 (on the abstract wall) are part of my “Notes on the Doran Bridge” series. Since first discovering the bridge on my way to the Sawyer Camp trail, I was stuck by the graceful muscularity of its arches, the musicality of its curves, its understated elegance. Vertical Sunset and Gold are from the “Naturally Abstract” series. Of Clay and Flesh and Blood and Time in Slow Motion are from my “Of the Earth” series, which consists of studies of pattern and texture in found in dirt. As is likely evident, I often unabashedly use post-processing to alter color, saturation and contrast as a means of adding my own interpretive layers to the original photograph.

www.maddenstudio.com

maddenimages@gmail.com

646-294-3327