Meet Randee Madison in Tempe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Randee Madison.

Randee, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a child, being so artistic, I often felt pressure around me from my mentors and adults to prepare for a lifetime of pushing aside this impulse. I couldn’t help but draw on my homework, paint my bedroom walls, and create every moment I had the opportunity. Driveway murals, cousin cast performances, joining the worship team at my church, taking photos just to edit them and create films with my friends was always my way of life.

Although I loved to create in all mediums, dance was the medium I primarily focused on training within- but during my studio and high school dance opportunities, I was often the odd man out. I wasn’t ever the best dancer, and my auditions and attempts to dance at a serious level was often followed with rejection. As I started to look into what college would look like for me, I felt that an art based focus would more or less set me up for failure. Many adults in my life encouraged me to find a creative but practical major that didn’t solely exist within the fine arts. I had one very close friend of mine encourage me that my deep love for arts was a gift from God and not something to be taken lightly- but why did these people install doubt in a place God had created courage for me? I felt if God desired for me to create, he would have made me better at it. I was wildly emotional in this transition.

In 2013, after graduating high school, I compromised and started my studies in Psychology while dancing on the side. I was preparing for plan B while still having a deep desire for my plan A. In this time, I gained weight, injuries, and a lot of anger.

At 21, I hit my lowest point. I walked around with a chip on my shoulder- angry at God that he wasn’t pulling me into a profession filled with art. Between taking 16 credits, working full time, dancing on a community college dance team, I felt myself drifting further and further away from my dreams. I had an opportunity brought to me by the grace of God to teach at a Dance studio a few hours a week in Mesa. This job lit a fire in my soul, and the other teachers were young and living so boldly for Christ I had started to ask myself why I had pushed God and Dance to the bottom of my priority list.

I was so unfulfilled with where I was- I made a huge jump of faith.

I quit my job at a coffee shop, picked up more hours at the studio, changed my major from Psychology to Dance, and transferred from ASU to Scottsdale Community College. I still doubted God’s ability to provide with creation in my life and had a lot of emotional healing to do.

Up to this point I had become toxic to the people I was around, My boyfriend of 2 years had to deal with my emotional instability, every customer I encountered felt my abrasive energy, my relationships were running dry with my roommates, and I had created a negative vortex around me in any artistic environment whether it be on my dance company or in open dance classes. Me rejecting art in my life was poison.

Over the next three semesters at SCC studying dance, I started to heal internally, externally, and within my relationship with the people around me. I started creating a community by inviting people over to my house to paint with me- and we would talk about life extremely candidly. My technique and ability improved as a dancer in this time too- largely because of confidence, company, and healing, but I also had teachers willing to break down the technique of movement for me in a way I had never had before. This level of intimacy in relationship to people created over a medium of art lit me on fire. I was a really bad painter and dancer at the beginning of all of this if I’m being completely honest- but art had started wasn’t something we did for product anymore, it was something we all indulged in for community and relationship.

As I finished my Associate’s program at SCC, I started looking into where I would continue to pursue my Bachelor’s degree in Arts. This level of learning made me fall in love with art again, and there was no going back. I had been drawn to a school in a small town in Texas called Sam Houston State University. They had a wildly good program, and I felt God pulling me there, although I had still not completely healed my relationship with Him at this point. I went to a private audition at the school, and right when the plane landed, I knew God was calling me here.

Long story short, I left my boyfriend, Julian, of three years, in Arizona at the time to go pursue where God was calling me. My time in Huntsville, Texas, was full of growth, struggle, and new experiences, but it being my first time away from home and the man I loved was hard.

My roommate Kirra, who had moved with me from Arizona, and I fell into painting a lot. We would dance for 8-10 hours a day at school and fill our nights coping with painting and tapping into our spirituality with creation. Our weekends, holidays, and breaks were filled with painting, and we grew immensely spiritually and as artists. We dabbled with new age spiritual practices and fell deep into a relationship with the universe. That summer, Kirra and I had realized our spirituality was lacking something- God. A friend of ours came to Texas to talk, and we both felt heavily convicted that we needed to refocus. We ended up recommitting our lives to Christ in the summer of 2018.

Though I loved the consistent artistry, I experienced in this time- missing Julian helped me realize how much family meant to me. Julian moved to Texas to close the distance between us after I had been gone for eight months. He was so supportive within this time and gave me so much freedom to submerge in art, though he didn’t have much there aside from me when he first came. After I had been at the school for over a year and a half, we decided this was not the best decision financially for us. There weren’t many jobs available in the town, and we were ready to start our lives together. A few months before finishing my third semester at SHSU, Julian asked me to marry him. He then moved home to help support me financially. I was unable to finish my degree in Texas due to this financial struggle and moved home after 6.5 years of college with no degree to my name. He flew out to Texas, and we gave away everything we had aside from what fits in the back of my 2007 HHR.

I moved back to Arizona in January of 2019, with a heavy fear but a lot of trusts that God has a reason for this. I prayed God would help us recover financially- and since moving home, I have sold over 30 paintings in six months. I have profited over $6,000 from canvas art- that is more than I made my entire time living in Texas. I have also been welcome back in the dance community with open arms- I have been given several professional dance opportunities just within these past six months- including Breaking Ground Dance Festival performing with JordanDanielsDance and with Halo Movement Collective as a company member. I am going to continue my studies at SHSU online to finish my BFA in Dance, no matter how long it takes!

Although my journey has been a fight, I feel its just beginning. I am so thankful for the grace, and support that this community has given me- and I’m so excited to see where it continues. I feel so blessed to be growing my family’s roots here while I expand my wings as a (somewhat) adult artist. My biggest lesson in this is art isn’t a pipe dream in this day an age- and I will never allow someone else’s doubt to hinder my gifts from shining- even when the gift is in a stage that seems a little rough.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Absolutely not. I have been rejected from more jobs and opportunities than I’ve been given- but I would not be the artist I am without the rejection to chisel away at me. Reference previous response.

Alright – so let’s talk art. Tell us about your work – what should we know?
My canvas work is primarily acrylic. I do costumer based work, and I’m honestly still trying to formulate what exactly my “style” is. I love abstract work, but a lot of my purchased work is more shape-oriented. My most popular pieces are renditions of girl silhouettes. Even when I do more commercialized concepts, I tend to always abstract it in some way. I do work with a very specific color palette, and I tend to not use primary or secondary colors.

As far as dance, I am a contemporary/modern dancer with a hip hop undertone. I love the vibe of urban dance, but I crave technical approaches. I love texture and release, and I use a lot of space-eating movement. I would love to choreograph as my primary creation- it’s been my love since I was a little girl. I have large respect for modern dance, but I find marketability to be very valuable to being an impactful artist, so I try to dance the line between the world of commercial and concert dance.

When you look back, what are you most proud of?
It has given me such confidence these past six months of selling canvas art consistently. I know its not only one moment but its a victory that I never expected. I always felt I was led to dance, which is still my first love and I have such a deep understanding and relationship to it- but I’m seeing an opportunity for financial freedom within canvas work and its easing a lot of my doubt.

Contact Info:

• Website: randeemadison.com
• Instagram: @iberandee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iberandee

 

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