Madeleine Aleman

I believe that inner peace and outer peace goes hand in hand. Being an artist is for me a statement for peace. In my lifestyle I need to choose carefully how to live my life to stay in harmony with an occupation that holds a lot of cultural capital, but often not so much money.

Like people in general I have two fighting sides within me and tend to be either in one or another in periods. One Madeleine is earth-bound and enjoys partying, adventure and social life. She wants to live in Barcelona and feel the cosmopolite pulse, get new impulses and meet all sorts of people. The other Madeleine is mainly in a spiritual state of mind, working on her personal growth, in a pretty ascetic and introverted lifestyle, with yoga practice and high level of consciousness about health and environment. She wants to live in the countryside, sit on a rock and glance at the lake. Both of these sides are absolutely dependent on each other. To reach inner peace integration is needed.

I just turned 50 years and been working on balance, integration and a holistic view of life since I was 16. I think that’s what we all need to do, mankind, work on inner peace and outer peace by integration. To Love ourselves and one another will lead to peace and save our world.

In my art practice I want to integrate things that usually don’t go together. In my kaleidoscope paintings The Star boy in a traditional Swedish custom is placed together with an Arabic ornament. East meets west, different dogmas and beliefs put together and create a new pattern, a new perspective.



When I paint the same kaleidoscope in inverted colours I create a diptych that together becomes “nothingness”. In my objects that mainly consist of recycled material and ready -mades I also strive to integrate different cultures. In my multi-cultic objects I put typical touristic things together into new objects. By spray-painting these objects grey with gold introduced slightly on the top the objects become equal to one another.

To work with art makes me feel more peaceful within. Since I, besides being an artist, also am a teacher in arts and trained as an art therapist I’ve seen many people gain peace through their art practice. I really get upset when the Swedish politicians, in spite of latest science on the necessity of using both brain halves, want to minimize art from high school. When I worked as a teacher in a preparing art school one of my students said:

“Instead of having military service for all men in Sweden I think they shall send everyone for one year to art school. The world would be so much better then!”

Rick Benjamin

I think I make very little distinction between spiritual & artistic practice. Which is also to say that I don't make much out of either one of them. I guess there's also a furthermore: I don't treat either one of these things as separate or more precious than other things I love in my life. I try to love everything to the same depth & degree. That is my daily practice, & the same thing will be true of doing the dishes as for writing the poem: both are going to get my best attention. A child's question can be a work of art; so can your response to her question. The conversation you have with a friend or student may be the thing you needed to pay attention to that day, or was it your meeting with the Mayor. If your son can't find his shoe in the morning, & you lose your patience & become angry, all the meditation in the world won't make up for it. Spiritual practice involves the daily practice of living. The quality of your life should be the measure of your spiritual & artistic practice.

I do bow down, I do practice meditation, say mantra; on occasion I have been known to seek out teachers because I needed their wisdom. But I also want to be intentional, well & rightly motivated off the mat. A cloistered spirituality or creativity-- ones that haven't been tested, tried & survived trials-- do not interest me. This is the life I have chosen & that has chosen me.

The only way to be peaceful in such a context is to embrace it all equally. When you are doing Buddhist prostrations, for example, do not be disturbed when your toddlers experience you bowing body as something to jump over. Your children are a large part of the love in your life so, for those moments, they are also part of your practice. When you daughter is looking over your shoulder at a poem you are writing, don't regret your loss of solitude, explain to her what you are doing, incorporate your conversation into the poem. It is so important to cultivate a loving, companionable relationship with our own work, & this begins in fully embracing other relationships. If you can achieve peace in & among all of the facets of your own life, if you can refrain from choosing between them, embrace them all equally, then, & only then, can you extend these gifts outward: you will treat everyone the same way, you will move through your day with a sense of inquiry, delight, surprise, spontaneity. Not only will you allow for interruptions to your "work," you will discover that in the interruptions might be the impetus for creativity, for spirituality. It might have been what you needed to pay attention to that day. Since you're not feeling particularly conflicted (it all deserves your attention & giving it equally is actually effortless), but you are unlikely to engage in conflicts elsewhere. Are these not the seeds of peace?

Am I making any sense?

A few more words about "peace." Many, maybe most of the people in the world, certainly all of us in this country, are overdue for enlightened instructions on multicultural humility. Curiosity, openness & honesty among differences have a way of fostering peaceful interactions between self & other, to the point that such divisions entirely break down over time. Real trust can grow in such a context. I am, after a while, less inclined to think that my interests alone are important or valuable; I am much more likely, in fact, to recognize that my interests are inextricably bound up in yours. I am never sure about what seeds or infrastructures stimulate the kind of growth toward a peace that is substantive & durable, but I have a deep faith that in those who risk planting or building. Any such try might take root or involve others in building similar structures. The tree bears fruit; more spacious lives exist inside suppler structures.

Questions about Peace and Art

Two years ago I worked as the apprentice printmaking instructor at a residential arts program at the Putney School in Vermont. I had most mornings off and spent it working with writer Devan Schwartz on a concept for a Graphic Novel titled Beckett’s Nexus. I remember him asking me how well I knew Picasso’s Guernica mural. At the time it was a vague art history lecture, I really had no sense of the Spanish Civil War, or how this story would have such a huge impact on my creative practice.

That following year I was accepted into the MFA-IA program at Goddard College and what had been a few preliminary sketches of Beckett’s story, had transformed into the foundation for my studies. I found myself somewhat frustrated by only understanding Spain through the lens of an out-dated library book. I felt like the character in the story, I knew I had to visit Spain for myself to get this story right, to see the Guernica for myself. Ride up and down the glass elevators at the Regina Sophia.

The Goddard Practicum project was approaching in my studies and I knew what I had wanted to do since my very first residency began. So I explored a bunch of residential opportunities for artists in Spain and sent out several application packages. After more than six months I sort of gave up hope that I would even hear back from these applications.

One morning I checked my email and I heard back from Can Serrat a residency in the Montserrat Mountains north west of Barcelona. I received a support stipend and was going to develop my practicum project and travel in Spain at the same time. So I spent a great deal of time mapping out my trip and saving money for this experience.

I made my way to Barcelona after traveling for a few weeks in Madrid and Toledo. I arrived to the Montserrat Mountains stunned by the bizarre mountains. I made my way to this old villa at the base of this mountain and encountered some of the most interesting artists I have ever met; it is difficult to put my experience to words.

Norwegian painting classes partying, poets, late night conversations with friends in almond orchards and ancient cathedrals. We all shared meals and ideas, and all worked as a community in the studios. I got a chance to share my work and participate with other artist’s work. I encountered many different people coming and going in the two months I was there. My initial goal was to follow the thread of the Guernica mural. To eventually create an animation interviewing artists on how they perceive peace. Or how artists foster messages of peace through their art in a short animation.

Although this animation didn’t quite become the product I envisioned I still feel that my questions were answered through all of the people I encountered at Goddard, here in Vermont and in Spain. It has been an amazing journey that I has helped shape this Graphic Novel into what it is today. In an effort to sustain this frequency in my work, and create a social engagement with other thinkers, artists, and wanderers I wanted to create somewhat of a forum on this theme of “Artists and Peace” on the Web and let this response evolve by being a project that connects artists.

I have created a blog-spot to exhibit some of the responses from the artists I worked with.
I encourage any participation with this dialog, and can be reached @
peterwallis@comcast.net