Artist Statement & Bio

Denial: Humpty Dumpty Reimagined

By, Madeline Friedman

Artist Statement: 

This piece is about destruction and mending. For this piece, I destroyed a half-skull/half-living-person portrait that represents part of my soul. I scattered it across 3 sheets of colored paper, approximately 19"x27" in size each. Additionally I destroyed another artwork of mine. A series of 14 drawings of how I looked through February 22nd to March 5th. Like my untitled piece, I ripped these up and strategically scattered them across the sheets of colored paper. In a way, before this project, I felt like I was destroying myself through self sabotage and allowing negative thoughts to take over. This project was made out of pain. I felt that if I was partially destroying myself in my life that I should see how it felt to do so in my work by literally destroying images of myself. So I did. It was a weird sensation. It wasn’t overtly positive or negative. I did it, and now that mini chapter is over. However, more than destruction, this piece is about incomplete mending. The incomplete mending is coupled with "sugar-coating" the situation with bright colors, which is also a distraction to the problem. I’ve fallen apart and by myself or sometimes with others, I was “put back together again”. In this piece, I’m “Humpty Dumpty”. Expect this time, the story has a different end. All the king’s men thought they put Humpty Dumpty back together again. They were in denial of the fact that their efforts didn’t fix the problem. There are people in my life, sometimes myself included, that are in denial about the true state of my mental health. This is why I used, “All the king’s men put Humpty Dumpty together again” in front of all the portrait pieces that are “poorly” put together, to show the contrast between what is said and what the reality is. It’s meant to get the viewer to question reality and reevaluate how they perceive other people, and possibly themselves. 

Artist bio:

Madeline Friedman is a Los Angeles based artist. She has been drawing since she was a kid. However, she first took on art in a serious matter when she reached high school, taking advanced art classes including AP Studio Art. Currently, as a student at Chapman University, Madeline Friedman expresses her individuality, personal struggles, and thoughts through all sorts of artistic mediums. She is known for creating extremely colorful work but has displayed her ability to work with a limited palette as well. She has had paintings shown in two separate Chapman University Student Shows. Additionally, Madeline Friedman is working towards graduating with a degree in Integrated Educational Studies and a minor in Studio Art.  

Pictures of destroyed pieces pre-destruction: