ELAB ArtLab Featuring Sean Madden

Coming this week: every second Thursday of the month, ELAB members and friends get together for a multidisciplinary critique, from 7-9 pm at 464 Gallery.

You can RSVP here.

We start with a featured presenter, and have a lively in-depth discussion about their work.  We then mini-critique any work willing quests and members bring in:  a piece of art, music, writing, video, etc by circulating and placing post-it note comments.

Through this process we gain encouragement, clarity, new sources of inspiration, and best of all: a network of creative types who support and encourage each other.

This month's Artlab Features the artwork of Sean Madden
Thursday, January 13th, at 7 pm
464 Amherst Street, Buffalo NYThere is plenty of street parking and always room for new faces.
Come enjoy food and drink for both body and brain.

And now, a discussion with Sean Madden:Interview by Tara Sasiadek

Who are you and what do you do?
    I'm an artist and a jazz fusion guitarist who grew up on Hertel Ave during the 60's and 70's. I left Buffalo in the early 80's and moved to Rochester to finish my degrees at SUNY  Brockport. I painted and drew throughout my childhood and adolescence. I was a pretty rough kid-- a juvenile delinquent-- and art was my way of surviving emotionally, and it also gave me something to feel good about. My art was never normal-- even as a kid. It was always psycho-representational, and very surreal.
    During the day, I work in an elementary school in a small rural area near Batavia. I've been employed as a counselor for 25 years-- I've seen it all.

What are you hoping to get out of the critique this month?
Honest feedback-- I always learn from this kind of thing. It's not a matter of how harsh it is-- it's always good. Sometimes we artists (and writers and musicians) step on our own penis, and we need to get our ego out of the way and open ourselves up to the process.

Author's note:  I seem to have misplaced my art-penis somewhere around here...

If you could spontaneously generate three things, what would they be?1. Legalized reefer so that we can fund education and health care more easily 2. An island for republicans, born again Christians and NRA fanatics (we'll give them Texas and Arkansas) with a BIG fuckin' fence around it. 3. Free college for anyone who maintains a GPA of 3.5

Author's note:  Come on, how do you really feel?

You seem to have established a definite style and niche area.  How did you go about that- purposefully?  Accidentally?  Naturally?
It was very natural, but I also studied very intensely. I was the kid in school that the other kids stood around and said, "Wow--holy shit," because I'd draw all this insane stuff on my notebooks-- but I also had to study composition and color theory and anatomy--- the whole bit. I was lucky as a teen to have teachers that believed in me-- they saw my talent, and they also saw that I was a badass-- so they pushed me-- real hard-- to take painting seriously.

Dionysus or Apollo?-
Definitely Dionysus. This is to my detriment as well as to my happiness. I know what it is to be so consumed by passion and fire and beauty that I can combust from within. It can be hard to live this way when you're younger and you don't understand it-- but I sure as hell get it now, and I'd never be any different.

Author's note: Sounds like the makings of a incredible artist workshop.

Do you have work you plan to keep personally? 

It'll all turn to dust some day. All of it. I just want to turn people on with it. Now. Everything is now. My kids will inherit a lot of what doesn't sell.

As a working artist, what does your schedule/studio time break down look like?

I paint or draw every day. Even if I'm not working on a specific project, I sketch to keep my eye sharp. As soon as i get home from work, I take a quick nap and go right to my studio and start working. My kids are older now, so I have lots of time to work. I have summers off, and do a lot of projects over the summer. I'm always working-- all the time. I don't really have a choice anymore as I've done it my whole life.

Werewolves vs. Cowboys- who is victorious?

Cowboys will shoot the werewolves with silver bullets, so the cowboys will win--wait-- are these football teams? I never watched football. I always dug naked chicks too much to chase a ball around on a field. Guessed I missed out on something?

Author's note: What is football?

Have any blogs or books in particular changed how you think about art or the art-making process?

Any creative person needs to read Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet." Everything about living creatively is in it-- the struggles and the joys. I've read it many times and get something new each time.

If you had unlimited funds and 6 months free of all obligations, what project would you tackle?

I would add LSD to the water supply of all the states that voted for Reagan or Bush, then hijack their TV satellites with 24/7 pornography (the good kind), then do a comparative study of IQ and reading scores in those regions to see if the scores went up---- oh, and also if the gun related death percentages went down. I'd also end female circumcision everywhere-- it pisses me off.

Author's note: I would insert our standard disclaimer here, but a law suit would be great publicity for ELAB at this point.

Favorite local art resource?
The 464 Gallery and the Guerrilla Gallery

Favorite color palate?

It depends on what I ate the night before.

Author's note: Beets?  A nice Chianti?

What is the last thing in the world you want me to ask you?
I won't let you sign my tit. My ass, maybe-- but definitely not my tit. I'm saving that for someone else.

Where can we find more of your work?

I'm all over the place these days. Locally, I have work at the Guerilla Gallery and the 464 Gallery, but I have work in Vancouver, and will soon have some work in a dark surrealists show in Harrisburg, PA, and the MF Gallery in NYC . I have work going into the new Scream movie as well this spring. I'm a busy guy.