We had the good fortune of connecting with Madison Busi and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Madison, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
My perspective on risk taking is a bit more casual than most people might assume of a professional artist and print maker. In the last many years I have been a student, registered nurse, and a mother who does art. When I began to consider taking my art hobbies to another level, it was with no intention of it being anything beyond my family and friends.
Social media played a big role in embracing any type of art community. Especially during a global pandemic – there were no other real options for me to reach out to other artists. There were no classes to take nor any galleries I could easily visit.
I had been following a few local Colorado Springs galleries and one in particular stood out as exceptionally accessable. The Space on Tejon, as it turns out, is a State Farm agency /art gallery – the art side is run by two amazing women Chelsea and Felicia. One day while feeling brave, which is not my usual, I decided to reach out to them and ask how a person became the type of artist with pieces in their space.
That small risk kickstarted a whole domino effect of good things for me in regards to art as a profession.
They happily took a look at my stuff and said they’d love to reach out at some point if they needed some more pieces for their gallery and that we should keep in touch. Not long after that they did in fact reach out.
I had six prints in a show there and that same month they contacted me about doing a short notice pop up shop and demonstration on a Saturday morning.
This outcome filled me with a sense that if I wanted something, I needed to ask for it and be willing to say, “yes” to the opportunities as they occured.
I now have prints, stickers and bags in a local shop called Heartshake Studios.
G44 on Boulder Ave has some prints of mine for sale. The Peake Gallery has shown a print of mine during a quarterly show. Cottonwood Center For the Arts had a piece of mine in their recent paper tiger show.
In the coming months I am looking forward to having one piece in a printmaking show in Denver at The Spark Gallery.
I may have some more prints in shows at the Cottonwood Center as well as the Peake Gallery again.
And most exciting for me, as a mom, currently I have two pieces hanging in The Space once again right alongside a piece my five year old daughter made!
I don’t know to this day if I just had a sense of how amazing the arts community in Colorado Springs was or if I truly got lucky. But I know that without the small risk I took that day, I would not have done any of this at this point.
Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I struggle to call myself a professional printmaker. I never took a class and as such, I don’t know the rules.
I do things wrong all the time. I mess things up in the best ways.
It’s these accidents and mistakes that make up the bulk of my best pieces and my favorite styles.
There is an art and nuance to printmaking that is superb when people know how to do it and they do it well.
I am lacking that. I acknowledge that I don’t have those skills and that precision. But in the absence of those abilities I have come to create a beautiful glitchy splotchy wonderful world in my art that for me brings feelings of joy and pain, and love and loneliness. It pushes through ideas of appropriateness and impropriety.
It is fun to see and it is even more fun to make and I hope that shows in every piece I’ve done.
Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Start with a breakfast burrito at King Chef. Then rest for five hours because you just ate at King Chef.
After that I would show them all of my favorite local galleries, take them to The Space on Tejon, G44 and Kreuser Gallery. Pop them into Poor Richards for an ice tea and book browsing.
A Barre class over at Barre Forte and then head down to Pikes Perk to check out the art and get a mocha.
Each day a hike in the morning and books and friends and food at night.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mother was a massive inspiration when it came to me learning and loving art. She was a teacher and is an artist still. Because of her and the rest of my family and friends who really propelled me forward the first months of my printmaking journey, I had no time to think of stopping. It was just constant support and praise and love
Website: www.madibprintsandpaints.com
Instagram: Busi_artish
Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MadiBPrintsandPaints?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=1010802304