Meet Madeleine Riande | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Madeleine Riande and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeleine, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Since art is so personal, I never saw it as a business. So making my art part of my business was really hard. Letting go of my work seemed very emotional to me. To be honest, in art, you just have to create and show your work and things will eventually happen. We are all trying to figure it out. When you look for opportunities, you find them. Like my mom would say “Who looks, finds”

I think the most important factor behind my success is understanding myself. The challenge and the consistency of the work. Building your own language and our own voice in your art is a huge factor for people to understand your work. I also believe the process of the work is the most important development as well as the research you intend to grow with. Art is also intellectual.

I believe art is not just a tool but is a perfect way to communicate and to cover many unspoken subjects related to sexuality, trauma, politics etc. Unspoken subjects are often why communities don’t grow and why human beings are repressed over trauma. My biggest desire is to show awareness over mental health and technology to my community.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
To be honest, being an artis is one of the most challenging and personal careers any individual could ever do. You have to go deeper in yourself to do something with a purpose and a meaning. If it is not genuine it could never be understood. But then again… everything is misunderstood. I’ve been drawing since I was 13 years old. I did my BFA industrial design with a minor in sculpture and another one in accessory design at the Savannah College of arts and Design. I liked materials and making objects that had a story. I was in love with glass so I was part of many glass organizations and schools like Pilchuck School of Glass and others. I also did my MFA at Pratt Institute in FIne arts. All my work is based on how the brain works through trauma and how you can rewire your brain. My memory, trauma and my experience are the essence of my artistic work. I believe that, although memory is built from real events in the past, it is also strongly fed by imagination. Flashbacks, nightmares are diffused images from trauma. All memory is partly fiction. Through my artistic processes, I have managed to bring events that remained repressed and ignored to consciousness. My work acts as catharsis in me. I don’t think anything in life is easy but I think the hardest part in art is having a purpose and that shows with time and work. Art is a challenge by itself. You need to have a good eye. The process, the loneliness behind working with only yourself. I think I’ve overcome my challenges by not giving up and following what’s in me. “If you don’t believe in yourself, who the F(*& will?” As a proud hispanic/latino woman from Panama, I am proud to say I can represent my country. I am proud to share my knowledge to people that do not have the opportunity that I did. I come from a country (Panama) that faces severe challenges in its education system. It lacks adequate resources and infrastructure. Panama experiences a low level of education attainment and high rates of poverty. Do to this, I believe that sharing knowledge is a dutty. Success to me is being able to help grow a community and infrastructure of understanding and opportunity.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Dad and my mentor Andrew S

My dad is an art collector, since I was a kid my house became a museum in my tiny eyes. I saw different stories around me. It was inevitable. When I was 8 years old my brother had an accident and was in a coma for a month. He hit his head. Since then I have become obsessed with the brain and I submerge my sadness in understanding trauma and society. How do we evolve? How do we transform? How do we rewire our brain after traumatic events? Physical? Emotional? Historical?

Website: http://www.madeleineriande.com

Instagram: @funkadelik_mad