Melbourne artist Madeleine Stamer combines her freelance illustration, limited edition prints and art pieces under the guise of Little Circus Design.
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 surrounded by animals and loving family. Her open minded parents always supported her yearning to be an artist since the day she put crayon to butcher paper...
Part tomboy with a sprinkling of girlyness Madeleine struggled to enjoy school. However, she did relish day-dreaming, climbing trees, collecting organic specimens, earning pocket money, trading swap cards, aspiring to draw like Dick Bruna, and watching classic Ray Harryhausen 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. Madeleine developed an early yearning for playdoh, plasticine, clay and malleable objects such as Blu Tack and Silly Putty which consequently lead to her degree in Architectural Ceramics.
During the mid 80's Madeleine met her future husband Karl within the Melbourne underground writers scene. Old school graffiti and street art have influenced her art greatly and she maintains a strong interest in the ever evolving street art scene. Karl is co-author of Kingsway which celebrates Melbourne's 'real deal old school' graffiti culture. Karl plays an integral part assisting Madeleine with the technical-ho-hum side of Little Circus Design as well as operating his printing business Lantern Printing.
Madeleine is dead keen on all things Mexicana. She loves Marimekko, tempting objects that are nice to touch, birds, loose feathers, natural history, skeletons, old school tattoos, traditional folk art, 70's design and the iconic art of Bjorn Wiinblad, Dick Bruna, Alexander Girard and Charley Harper.
Madeleine splits her time as a visual arts teacher at a prominent Melbourne school as well as devoting herself to illustrating, exhibiting, collaborations, blogging and working on various Little Circus Design projects. Madeleine works from her home studio with her husband Karl, daughters Wilhelmina Pearl and Ada Clementine. They manage to squeeze into their semi run-down, part restored Victorian terrace located in Melbourne, Australia. Madeleine strangely prefers the winter months best.
Interviews And Nice Things
