1+1=1 Gallery > News > Magdalene Linden, Young Artist

Magdalene Linden, Young Artist

Read Along with Magdalene Linden’s Artist Talk

Hi. I’m Magdalene Linden and I’m 8 years old, almost 9. I’m going to tell you a little bit about my art. I really like feeling free to be messy in my art classes. There’s paper on the tables and on the floor so you can be super messy. Also the art studio has lots of supplies I don’t have at home. In the studio I’m surrounded by art that makes me feel at home. Sometimes I go somewhere and I look at things, they kind of soak into my head, including colors and those become ideas to make my art. Something like a sad song with a music video of a house, affects me and I can put it into art. 

I really like learning about other kinds of art that we don’t do at home or in school. Mostly I really loved doing paintings. My least favorite thing is art projects that take forever to do. I like to make art I can finish pretty quickly. 

I started off drawing on the wood with pencil. Then I painted the skin and hair and clothes. Next was the background and the sides. Since it’s my friend, Aloice, in Rwanda, I painted patterns that remind me of my friend wearing his clothes. Rwandans have those kind of prints on their clothes. 

This piece makes me feel happy and like we’re hugging him, which is why I call it “Warm Hugs.” It makes me feel snuggly too. 

I chose the yellow background because it kind of matched all the other colors I used. The really bright orange on Sali’s shirt is because I wanted to do an opposite color from what was in the picture I found, and I made my shirt pink because it’s my favorite color. I made the backpack go around the side of the painting. 

There’s the story behind this little painting: we were in our backyard in Rwanda and I was 4 years old. It was a sunny day and my mom wanted to take a picture for Instagram. So me and my sister were with Aloice and we were in a big hug. Aloice is my friend because I was always being with him because my mom had to go to her work, and I had to be baby-sitted by Aloice and Esther, so we got close. I was born in Rwanda so I met Aloice when I was born. 

Who loves art? I do! Thank you, Maureen for being my art teacher, and the people who sponsored me and everybody who listened to my talk.  Thank you!