By Natalie Hamren
NKyTribune reporter
Part of an occasional series on how area college students are surviving the pandemic.
Thomas More studio art major senior Madyson Haynes recently debuted her art show “Reclaiming Womanhood.”
The senior capstone, inspired by mushrooms, consists of 64 monotype prints, as well as a series of 13 ceramic women vessels. The prints show various races, ages and sizes of woman throughout different times in their lives.
Haynes’ show is a celebration of women and what it means to be a strong, successful woman.
“It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I had the opportunity to study Feminist artist Judy Chicago. Judy Chicago inspires me because she was a trailblazer for women in the art field in the 1960’s to present time. Judy Chicago is a prime example of what it means to be a strong independent woman.”
“After viewing my show, I want to empower and make people think differently about women. Over the past hundred years things have changed drastically for women positively and negatively. Still today women are still fighting for their rights globally. I hope my show speaks volumes for what it means to be a strong powerful woman,” Haynes said.
Haynes said she was inspired by natures and mushrooms, so she thought it would be unique to take this approach in a celebration of women by showing her love and passion for feminism. The subjects in her prints are figures of women with mushroom heads. Haynes said she wanted to juxtapose the elegance of both women and mushroom and show how strong they are.
“Most people might find this juxtaposition weird or hard to comprehend. But in my eyes, it makes complete sense. Both share a relationship of being strong and beautiful. Women are strong and beautiful but so are different species of mushrooms,” Haynes said. “Mushrooms can live in different environments and go through hardships just like women metaphorically speaking. All mushrooms come in different shapes and sizes like women. All the prints show women in various states of their lives.”
For the project, Haynes used monotype prints. She said monotype prints have a unique process. According to Haynes, monotype prints only have one good print generated versus many prints generated at a time.
“Monotypes are praised because you can achieve beautiful texture and painterly lines,” Haynes said. “These types of prints are made on plexiglass and are then run through the press.”
“Printmaking is kind of a rare art form,” Haynes said. “Printmaking is like making a fancy stamp. A monotype print consists of 1 print of its kind, which makes me love it even more. Monotype prints are in the intaglio family of printmaking. Ceramics has always been my love. From a young age, I took ceramic classes at Baker Hunt. There is just something so therapeutic to feeling clay in your hands and creating something beautiful with what was a blob of clay.”
Haynes said it took around a year to develop the idea for her project. She spent most of the quarantine during the pandemic creating concept sketches and color pallets for her art. In August 2020, she started making prints up until a month before the show. Haynes said she started making some of the vessels in 2019 and finished the rest in 2021 weeks before her show.
To Haynes personally, reclaiming womanhood means that “you are your own self.” It means that you are not doing what everyone else wants you to do, but rather what you want to do.
“For me, I want to be an artist and I want to share that love and passion with everyone. Being able to show my passion for ceramics and printmaking was an experience I will never forget,” Haynes said. “Also, being a woman who wants to express and spread female empowerment in the art world was an honor. All the love and support from my show reminded me of why I am an artist.”
Haynes said, before the opening day of her show, she was nervous about what people were going to say. However, she then remembered that the whole point of the show is not caring what other people think—there will always be people who dislike her work because art is subjective, Haynes said.
“This capstone was for me to present my passion and show my own twist on Womanhood. I received nothing but love and support for this show. Numerous women were approaching me and telling me they see themselves in the art,” Haynes said.
After graduation, Haynes is hoping to get her certification in yoga and get a Master’s of Fine Arts in printmaking.
“This art show isn’t the end of me making art, it is only just the beginning,” Haynes said.
