sever me love me there’s mud in my veins circling like an infection depolute me depolute me your warm body makes it bearable warm bodies warm bodies bodies warm body body body body warm nauseous body feels like a feral animal in my chest clawing cutting cutting cutting let me sleep, 66 x 100 inches
Oil, cold wax, oil pastel, charcoal, pencil, collage, blade, string on canvas on self constructed stretcher bars, 2023.
My approach to painting is a conversation with the canvas as I discover and give shape to figures. Through automatic painting and abstracting the figure, I explore the duality of the separation yet union of my body.
I’ve realized that the process of painting allows me to feel the discomfort of corporeal (dis)embodiment: the haunted flesh. Even so, the conversations I’m having through painting transcend merely tapping into embodiment. Indexing conversations that I have with my body onto the surface of the painting while I work is a way for me to understand my body trauma.
The bodily and bloody texture of oil paint and cold wax opens an exploration into the body cavity of the work. Flesh becomes material. These entangled remnants at times become buried within the folds of the painting. Through the process of excavation, the painting is struggling to remember.
I'm Madelyn Turner, a figurative painter based in Illinois. I have my BA in studio art, and I am currently pursuing an MFA degree with Illinois State University. I am interested in how body mapping can inform body trauma and the discomforts of corporeal embodiment. My paintings have been featured in galleries such as Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, the Borzello Gallery in Galesburg, IL, and the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA.