Artist Statement
I see my work as an extension of my existence. While I acknowledge all of the privileges and gifts of my life, it is important to me to be equally expressive of the moments and experiences that cause me grief. Previous generations of my family were to suppress and endure. I have experienced the aftermath of suppressed emotions, passed down through generations. I feel it in me. It is me.
After the loss of my mother in 2019, I was deeply afraid of ignoring my grief and my reality. So instead I forced myself to go into it and to let it into me. At the age of 20, this was my first time allowing myself to feel true hurt and experience true healing.
Grief comes in waves, unannounced and loud like your favorite least-favorite relative. You can try to ignore her, but she’s so present and she reminds you painfully.
Over the past three years, I’ve become so close to grief. I have a profound appreciation for it. I believe that grief is evidence of a relationship that mattered; it shows you the truth in the most backward, savage way.
I’ve felt in this journey a sense of loneliness and isolation. Things that have helped me along the way are journaling, art, books, therapy, podcasts, music, friends, family, etc. But in particular, it was pivotal when I found relatability in grief.
I read The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and, up until the point of reading this book, I had no idea that other people also experienced what Didion refers to as the “vortex.” In the vortex, Didion would be transfixed by mundane, everyday circumstances that would pull her into memories or moments of the past. I thought I was the only one pulled against my will into memories and nostalgia, but knowing that this is a semi-universal grief experience soothed me.
I make work that speaks to my own encounters with grief so others may know they are not alone in their expressions or experiences. I work to process my own and also to give reference for those who have and have yet to meet this unique phenomenon of loss.
Madisyn Lynn Simington(she/they) graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in visual art studies from Penn State University, Altoona College in May 2022. Their work often displays a passion for written work while exercising attention to visual, conceptual, and textural elements. In their senior exhibition, Mother’s Days(on display in the McLanahan Gallery at Penn State Altoona from April 7 -16, 2022), Simington focuses on the loss of her mother and creates visual conversations about mourning and grief.
Simington’s work has been featured in the McLanahan and Sheetz galleries as part of Penn State Altoona’s VAST exhibitions, Hard Freight Literary Magazine, Penn State Altoona’s African American Read-In, and at the Palmer Museum of Art in State College, PA. After graduation in May 2022, Simington is attending Penn State University's School of Visual Arts to pursue an MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography.