M a d e l y n T u r n e r - H a v e n s

I'm Madelyn Havens, 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 the physical and affective experiences with the body. My paintings have been featured in publications and galleries such as Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL, the Borzello Gallery in Galesburg, IL, the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA, the Catich Gallery at St. Ambrose University, IA, and New American Paintings.

Within my painting process, I explore bodily interiority and exteriority in relation to the surface of painting, evoking a discomforting sense of corporeal (dis)embodiment, where haunted flesh becomes palpable. Indexing conversations with the body into the painting is a way to understand my body and create an experience of what happens when language fails to capture the complexity of sensation. Painting becomes a mediation with the canvas, a constant discovery of what can give shape to the intangible: how it feels when my skin folds into itself, bodily urges, and the soft texture of fatty tissue.

I let the parts of the body that do not have a voice speak to the viewer, embodying the duality of beauty and the grotesque. Fleshly imagery becomes material, the texture of oil paint mimicking soft flesh, while cold wax opens an exploration into the body cavity. Plump entanglements and conversations become buried within the folds of the painting. It becomes a struggle to remember the differences between aggression and tenderness; a body that has been bellied and distorted.

At the root of the paintings lies an ambiguous ache: mourning the loss of a whole body when a fractured one remains, an unmediated connection. This ache is inseparable from a yearning to reconcile and to approach the body with a tenderness that counters its perceived alienation. Painting becomes a way of negotiating this dichotomy, where the act itself wavers between grief and care, rupture and repair. It is through this process that I explore not only the vulnerability of embodiment but also the possibility of fostering tender care towards oneself, even as the throbbing persists as an ever-present undercurrent. An ache at the root of painting, masked by tenderness is what I chase when I paint.