Maddie Stumbaugh, is a non-binary lesbian artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Maddie received their Art B.A. from the University of Minnesota in the spring of 2021. Maddie works full-time as a custom picture framer, and spends the rest of their time painting and creating.
Maddie states
"My current body of work explores the delicate balance between the phenomenally personal things we experience on a daily basis and the way in which those experiences hold influence over our lives一connecting us across different pasts, presents, and futures. My paintings serve as windows into our collective existence as individuals while also embodying varying identities and being a part of different communities. What is seen through these paintings is sourced from my own emotions, childhood traumas, experience of queerness, and overall, my take on what it means to be in this lifetime. These windows create faint reflections for those looking inward that emphasize fragments of our shared realities and feelings. Reminiscent of the canvases I work on, I weave my lived experiences, important aspects of my identity, and my feelings towards these elements of my life tightly together into an elusive, vibrant, and expansive dreamscape that crosses interpersonal boundaries.
Working primarily on canvas, I find that acrylic paint properly allows me to source the colors and forms necessary for me to accurately articulate the way I feel about things happening within my realm. It is through the use of vivid, yet seemingly dreary, color combinations and amorphous figures一resembling that of the human body一that I am able to speak about the confines of my life (especially in terms of being a lesbian). I place these figures in vacant, or inversely crowded, spaces that do not quite feel within reach of reality. There is an overarching pensive element to my work, as my paintings delve into the profoundly personal and extraordinarily emotional moments that accompany us throughout our individual journeys in life. Our experiences have the power to shift the way we see the world and simultaneously the way in which the world sees us.
My paintings hold the primary function of serving as a makeshift journal of my life experiences. There's a persistent internal drive within me to document these occurrences and all of the painstaking ways in which they affect me. Creating art, specifically painting, allows me to cope. There is an alternate, more provocative and transparent version of myself that walks through my paintings. This version of myself explores a visual dream which holds space for conversations on gender, personal relationships, sexuality, religion, and deep-seated emotions. Through painting, I outline the ways my identities affect those important to me and the overall way in which I view life."
Acrylic
18 x 21 inches