Madeleine Greenway: Propagation

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Madeleine Greenway, 'Beautiful, Reliable, & Delicious', coloured pencil drawing, 22" x 22", 2020

Propagation explores the connections between plants, food, land, and people. Madeleine Greenway deftly combines drawing and printmaking to create lush portraits and still lives; each work treated with the same attention to detail manifesting as a character study for plants, family, and food. Madeleine states: "This series expresses gratitude to the matriarchal knowledge that has enabled me to provide for my family, as well as connect to plants, food, land, and people. While my inner dialogue is full of anxiety and sadness, the garden, the kitchen, and the studio give me reprieve from these thoughts. Most of the women in my family experience chronic mental or physical illness. But they were not joyless, or weak. Images of them in the garden show strong, happy, and proud women. This is the part of my family history I want to celebrate... The aim is this: to generate longing for a more intimate relationship with food, to invite the audience to the garden as a source of joy and respite, and to share a simple message of gratitude and the difference that care can make."

Propagation explores the connections between plants, food, land, and people. Madeleine Greenway deftly combines drawing and printmaking to create lush portraits and still lives; each work treated with the same attention to detail manifesting as a character study for plants, family, and food. Madeleine states: "This series expresses gratitude to the matriarchal knowledge that has enabled me to provide for my family, as well as connect to plants, food, land, and people. While my inner dialogue is full of anxiety and sadness, the garden, the kitchen, and the studio give me reprieve from these thoughts. Most of the women in my family experience chronic mental or physical illness. But they were not joyless, or weak. Images of them in the garden show strong, happy, and proud women. This is the part of my family history I want to celebrate... The aim is this: to generate longing for a more intimate relationship with food, to invite the audience to the garden as a source of joy and respite, and to share a simple message of gratitude and the difference that care can make."