Photo Courtesy Rachael Kendrick
Madeleine Stamer
was born in 1972, the year of the rat. The youngest of five children she grew
up in the leafy outer suburbs of Melbourne. Her open minded parents always supported
her yearning to be an artist since the day she put crayon to butcher paper...
At the end of her
street was an amazing creek which is where she spent most of her childhood,
knee deep in the leech infested waters catching tadpoles. Animals were a big
part of her family, and still are. The families menagerie of pets included many
beastlings such as their two loyal dogs Mooch & Bill, a constant flow of
canaries (all named Charlie) a turtle named Turtle, lizards, yabbies, tadpoles,
frogs, goldfish and the dearest one of all, Fergus the duck (Madeleine and
Fergus even featured on Simon Townsends Wonderworld, true story!)
Part tomboy with a
sprinkling of girlyness Madeleine never really enjoyed school. However, she did
relish day-dreaming, aspiring to draw like Dick Bruna, collecting and trading
swap cards and watching classic Ray
Harryhausen phantasmagorical movies. Harryhausen’s whimsical
portrayal of supernatural skeletons, beasts and mythological creatures paved
way for Madeleine’s love of fantasy, parallel worlds and all things surreal.
His animation lead to Madeleine's love and obsessive use of playdoh,
plasticine, clay and malleable objects such as Blu Tack and Silly Putty.
In the mid 80's
Madeleine became involved in the Melbourne underground writers scene, consequently
her exposure to the early days of graffiti have influenced her art greatly and
she is a huge devotee of graffiti and street art. Her husband Karl who
was also associated with the early days of Melbourne graffiti plays an integral
part assisting Madeleine with the technical-ho-hum side of her freelance
illustration business Little Circus Design. Karl has maintained strong links
with the early Melbourne graffiti scene and he is co-author of Kingsway which celebrates
Melbourne's 'real deal old school' graffiti culture.
In 1989 after
completing Year 12 at Swinburne Technology Secondary School Madeleine studied
Architectural Ceramics at Monash University. Madeleine gained her Teaching
degree (primary & secondary) in 2001 at Deakin University and began a
Masters of Fine Arts at Monash University. Throughout the 90's Madeleine worked
from her shared studio space focussing on her sculptural ceramics, mould making
projects and commissioned mosaics. She presently works from her home studio on
her illustration and design projects which is an extension (in reverse!) of her
earlier three dimensional work.
Madeleine is dead
keen on all things Mexicana. She loves Marimekko, tempting objects
that are nice to touch, birds, natural history, skeletons, old school tattoos,
traditional folk art, 70's design and the adorable art of Bjorn Wiinblad, Dick Bruna, Alexander
Girard and Charley Harper.
Madeleine and her
loving husband Karl, two daughters Wilhelmina Pearl and baby Ada Clementine
live in a semi run-down, part restored Victorian house in Melbourne,
Australia. Madeleine also works part time at a prominent Melbourne school
teaching visual arts as well as devoting time to exhibiting, updating her blog and working on her Little
Circus Design projects.
