The official blog for author and illustrator Madyson Blair.
Alright! Time for another event. This month, August 25th-26th, I'll be selling my books and art at the Detroit City Art Walk from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm Saturday AND Sunday! So please come visit, see all the amazing artists and maybe purchase an original print of mine or some copies of The Weather Inside ;) Hope to see you there!
Once again, for more pictures and updates please follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madysonblair/
Okay, I know I haven't posted in here in along time and that's primarily because I am using Facebook and Instagram more these days--not because I've dropped off the face of the earth, I promise! (Which reminds me, Please follow me on Instagram--I post a lot more things there! https://www.instagram.com/madysonblair/). I am still, however, dedicated to at least posting about my upcoming events in here. This is my first event in a while. After the whole wedding thing I needed a bit of time to wind down. I've been continuing to work intensely on book three and have currently started a few new pieces of artwork that I am chafing away at day by day. I have am also still participating greatly in my spiritual path and am constantly astonished at the uncanny things that I uncover all the time. Never a dull moment with my muse!
Anyway, the point of this entry is that on Sunday, April 29th from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM I will be selling My Books at the store Leon and Lu Lu's in Clawson MI! The event is Called Books and Authors, and there will be many other awesome authors there as well!! Come join us! here is a link to the event page: https://www.leonandlulu.com/events/books-authors/
Helloo I've returned a newly married woman! Now that all that crazy wedding planning is over with I'm getting right back into the grind...I will be selling my art and books again at this year's Nonsense Night : The Ice Cream Funeral Parlor at The Tangent Gallery Friday October 6th at &:30 pm! I will also be doing my first ever reading from Book II. Come and join! It will be a delectably dark experience you won't want to miss...
On Saturday, June 24th, a HQ print of my piece "The Magician" will be hanging for sale at the gallery show "Subreality" amongst other awesome surreal art. I will also be vending there (The Tangent Gallery, 715 E Milwaukee St
Detroit, Michigan, MI 48202). This will be my first time selling The Weather Inside Book II at a show! So if you want a signed copy please come visit :)
"The Magician"
"‘Do you see the universe above you?’
'Yes.'
‘Do you see the universe below you?'
‘Yes.’
‘Do you see the horizon between them?’
‘Yes.’
‘This is the trinity born of the mind of that which cannot be named—the mind which precedes matter.’"
-The Weather Inside Book II
So I FINALLY finished this drawing...I printed out a version of it to give to The Birthday Massacre the other day, seeing as it was directly inspired by their song "Superstition". Since then I've had time to touch it up a bit and well...here it is... I give you, my latest work, "Intuition". Unsurprisingly, it illustrates a part of The Weather Inside Book II. Anyone out there who wants to buy the book, don't forget to message me and let me know!
It's hard to believe I'm finally making this announcement. 100+ copies of The Weather Inside Book II are now officially available!! If you're interested in a signed copy made out to you personally, please PM me and we can discuss the details. They are 15 dollars including shipping, 10 dollars if you get one in person. If you haven't got the first book I'll sell them two for the price of one and a half! :) They're not on Amazon just yet, but there are several reasons why I would rather send them to friends and family myself, anyway. ❤️
The stork delivered my new baby today... I didn't expect the printed proof to arrive this quickly! It's just so surreal to finally hold it in my hands. As you can see, it's much thicker than the first one, ha. And yes, my face looks weird because I was crying... :')
It's Time For...... *drum roll*.........The Weather Inside Book II COVER REVEAL!!! :D
Tick, tock, tick, tock...Prepare yourself for the Second Coming of Alastair Sinclair...The Weather Inside Book II will be officially available next month!
Exciting news! I will be selling/exhibiting my work at a couple shows coming up at the Tangent Gallery 715 E Milwaukee, Detroit. The first is called "Purgatory, a Cinematic Exploration of the Soul" Sunday March 12th from 4:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. I will have a booth there selling the usual Weather Inside related merchandise. :)
The second is the "5th annual Venus Rising event" on Saturday April 1st from 7:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m., an exhibition celebrating female artists--my pieces "Remembering The World", "The High Priestess", "All Human Contact Is Prohibited" and "The Burning Man" were all accepted and HQ prints of them will be on display/for sale! I will also be selling merchandise there. (Hopefully Book II will be printed by then.)
I FINISHED BOOK TWO!!!!! And some trusted people are reading it right now and editing it before it goes to print!!!
This actually happened a while ago. Why am I just posting this now, then? Well, basically, I got out of the habit of posting in here for a couple reasons. One reason is (and I don't mean to sound sorry for myself or anything) I honestly don't know if anyone even reads this blog, haha. I really haven't reached that kind of "success" yet where I know people are interested enough in me and my work to actually go to my website regularly and read things. So I keep falling back onto posting things on Facebook because it's easier--I mean, it's especially easier to upload photos there. Plus, people actually see and read and react to the things I post on Facebook. It's a bit sad because I don't even really like Facebook and yet I keep falling back on it to share things in regards to my journey as an author as my own website just sits here...
But anyway. Enough of that. Yes--Book Two is completed and I hope to self-publish it by March (that's probably a bit ambitious, but I will definitely do my best to publish it before the summer.)
When I do the cover reveal, I will be sure to post it here as well as Facebook. But for anyone out there who might read this website and not know me on Facebook (I doubt that such a person exists but just in case...) please go to my Facebook to catch upon things...it's public:
https://www.facebook.com/madyson.blair.3
You'll see photos from DAMNED, a piece of art I started, stuff about my engagement and our upcoming wedding (egad, did I forget to mention that here too?? Yeah...I'm GETTING MARRIED TO THE LOVE OF MY LIFE IN SEPTEMBER!) and other things. I will try to get better at posting in here though. It's just difficult to do that before I really have a true following, you know? I'm not the type to assume people give a crap about me, haha. Well, I guess that's all I have to say for now. To anyone out there who cares enough to actually read this THANK YOU, whoever you are!! I mean it!!
Love,
An Aspiring Author. (Not sure why this suddenly turned into a letter but okay!)
My piece "Finding the King" has been accepted into "Damned, an Exhibition of Enlightened Darkness"!!!! I am so excited about this! It will be three days of decadent performances, art, culinary curiosities and masquerade magnificence. (And I get free, VIP access to all of it, heh!) I even get to sell prints of other illustrations and my novel in the store! This fabulous event takes place October 27-29th at the Tangent Gallery on Hastings Street, Detroit. Be there if you dare.... ;)
"Finding the King"
Nonsense night was crazy awesome! Cool music, unique people, and I even sold some art :):) I want to give a special thanks to my amazing man for helping out and always being so supportive of my creative journey.💗 Also thanks again Zakery for the opportunity. I have a feeling this will not be my last Nonsense Night...
Convocation was crazy this year! I sold 14 pieces of art :) The masquerade/costume party was the best, dancing till 3 AM and playing Cards Against Humanity with fellow pagans and two of the best friends ever! I didn't take nearly enough photos this year, but at least I got some shots of my display...and my handsome dragon man all dressed up in his dragon garb of course...
My love helping me set up! <3
I look tired as hell!
My Drama King <3
Now entering 2016...now approaching my 25th birthday...now teetering at the edge of a new chapter in my life. 2015 was the year of transition, and those transitions are following me still.
Meeting my muse incarnate in 2014 has sent me in a direction I never quite anticipated--it has been a marvelous and magical direction; one that has forced me to take care of myself and my own personal life instead of solely tending to my work. I know that the quantity of my work--especially my visual art--has suffered because of this. The amazing thing I've discovered, however, is that even though the new complexity that befell my existence has slowed my creative production, the quality of my work has in no way suffered. I am mainly referring to the writing of Book II, which I have stayed consistently devoted to meticulously crafting. It turns out that the new external things I've experienced over the past few years have brought me to a higher level of internal understanding. There are no words to explain what this higher understanding is precisely. All I know is that I have, without question, channeled it, expressed it and woven it through every sentence of my upcoming book.
I've always felt that I was born backwards. l arrived here an old woman at the transcendent edge of death. Slowly I have had to learn to come alive, become younger and to bring myself down onto this planet, have fun--experience things "outside" my own mind and live here as a functioning human person. Recently I have done just that and learned in the process that my work needed it just as much as I did. All the while, I have not lost the strange wisdom I was born with. Though I still have a long way to go, I have only gained the experience to give weight and depth to truths that I already held within me.
Right now I am sitting in the house that my love and I are moving into together. Everything is still in chaos and nothing is quite in its place inside this house. And yet everything is so close--right on the edge of becoming ordered. I feel that this new home is in many ways a symbol of my state of being. The pieces of me are almost but not quite organised in my new skin--almost but not quite to that point where I can plant my roots and create the quantity of work I used to... back when I lived alone in my apartment. A new era of art is approaching, I can feel it...and it will emerge with the birth of book II. I just need some more time, it seems, to gather myself before these things can properly begin.
To anyone out there who cares or appreciates my work, I am just here to say that I have almost spiraled back to where I once was, only now understanding deeper truths and thus nearly ready to create more.
I'm almost there. I'm almost there...
With all its woes, struggle, discipline and madness--why be a writer? Why be a storyteller? When I ask myself these questions, the response that resounds from deep within me is always the same: 'Because it is magic.'
When I chose to surrender to this path, I chose to become vulnerable. And with that vulnerability I opened up and allowed myself to receive the story. The most magical thing of all about being an author is meeting that one character who is the beginning. The one who breathes life not only into your work, but into your world. When you allow that character to enter--when you allow him/her their absolute autonomy and see them as you wold see another life form--that is the beginning of the magic I speak of.
That character for me is Alastair. Today is his birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALASTAIR! And thank you for seven years of unforgettable magic...I look forward to the many magical years yet to come... <3
Yes, it has been much too long since I wrote a post in here but the past few months of my life have been....chaotic to say the least. Amidst the stress and madness I have still managed to write TWI Book II when I can, and I am happy to report that I only have a chapter and a half left before I can call it 'complete'. Of course, then it will still take quite a long time to finish after endless hours of editing! But it's definitely getting there, slowly but surely :)
I have also started a new coloured pencil piece, but haven't been able to work on it much at all. So hopefully I will finally be able to focus on that some more this week. In the meantime, here are some photos of my recent Halloween escapades with the love of my life <3
Theatre Bizzare and The Monster's Ball did not disappoint. Well, at least I'm not experiencing any shortage of inspiration!!!
Don't let all his serious looks fool you....he's got a serious side of course, but he's mostly a big, lovable goofball! <3
Somehow, I don't think it's entirely sunk in yet that I actually have a live model I can look at for reference when drawing Alastair now...I spent so many years relying solely on my mind's eye when it came to capturing him, I'm really not used to this surreal and magical luxury <3 Really though, WHERE WERE YOU ALL THOSE YEARS I WAS AT ART SCHOOL, HONEY?? Lol, just kidding. It all happened as it was meant.
As soon as I started sketching this one it definitely had its own agenda and turned into something more...I think I smell a new Prismacolor illustration for TWI Book II coming soon!
Once again, Michigan Pagan Fest was quite an experience for me! The rainstorms on Saturday may have drowned our tents, but in the end it couldn't drown our spirits. The sun came out again on Sunday and brought with it a much appreciated package of positive energy. I made some promising connections, met cool people, sold some stuff, hung out with close friends and best of all I got to go back to the place where I fell in love <3 Julius and I sat together in the exact spot we met--against the #6 building. Last year I met the love of my life and this year I got to be a vendor and promote my work with my him by my side :) What an awesome, warm and loving community. I feel privileged to be a part of it. Thank you MPF for yet another unforgettable weekend :D And thank you baby for all of your help setting up my booth!!!
My vending face!
Standing by the wall where we first met <3 <3 <3
Gotta have those strings of lights!!!!
Julius being goofy.....imagine that!
I donated to the raffle! :)
One year ago today, I went to a pagan festival in search of higher truths and met the love of my life. This is the first picture of us ever taken, the day after we met when we lay next to one another in his tent.
“I could have died right there…’cause he was right beside me.”
—Lana Del Rey, Ultraviolence
Happy 1st Anniversary, Sweetheart. <3 I love you more than words can express.
I mean, we started off the day playing glowing bocce balls in the backyard until three in the morning. Could we be more meant for each other?? Haha. I can only imagine what the rest of the day holds!!!
Well, I feel like it's time to tell our unique love story, so here goes...
The day before I met Julius, I told a woman in a white veil about my deepest fears. It was early June—the first day of my first Pagan Festival—and there I was, broken down and bawling before the Goddess herself. I told her that I had made a great sacrifice in choosing to write my series of novels and asked if I was on the right path. Tenderly, she held my head in her hands and said, ‘of course, my beautiful daughter. Of course you are on the right path. Hold on to it. What else is there?’ And just like that, the author’s flame within me had been totally rekindled.
While sitting outside the following day, I read a profound sentence in a book about the archetypal link between Christ and Dionysus. Of course I promptly underlined it, feeling that it validated my own theories more than anything I’d ever read before. Feeling inspired, I closed the book and started on my way toward a Past Life Regression ritual. Just as I’d come close enough to see my group gathering under the gazebo, I was stopped in my tracks by a gentle male voice.
‘Hey, how are you?’
I turned around, surprised to find a strikingly handsome man sitting against the wall. It was not his handsomeness alone which intrigued me, but his uncanny resemblance to the main character from my novels (the Dionysian archetype that I’ve been drawing pictures of for many years). The two of us began a lively conversation in no time. I told him about the novels I was writing. He told me he was studying crystal healing. The two of us couldn’t stop talking. ‘I’m Madyson by the way,’ I said. ‘What’s your name?’
‘Julius.’ He smiled warmly.
After a while, we got up and walked around together. He introduced me to his fun-loving friend Katrina, brought me back to his tent and flirted with me unabashedly for the rest of the day. We’d begun to play little mind games with one another, bantering and joking through contests of wit. Even so, neither of us made our feelings completely clear until that night.
Once the sun had set, I decided to enter among a female-only group who had gathered together for a frivolous maenad* parade. After our ritual leader made her fervent speech about love, sex and alcohol, we quickly touched our plastic cups of wine together and got busy adorning ourselves in glow rings and glow sticks. ‘It’s all about the passion ladies,’ she said. ‘Now we must go out on the prowl and catch ourselves some men!’
First we wandered out onto the dark fairgrounds in a wavy line, singing and dancing to the beat of the distant drums in the drum circle. Julius hadn’t left my thoughts all night, and the only thing I wanted was to be with him again. When the group split up to go capture unsuspecting members of the male gender, my good friend Lindsay pushed me gently. ‘Go and find your bearded man.’ And that gesture, it seems, was all it took to send me rocketing in the direction of Julius’s tent.
The camping area was nearly desolate at the time. Some of the tents were set up facing one another and I felt as if I was meandering through some sort of tiny village. There was a faint blanket of fog that settled in the grass, growing denser where I peered into the distance. A figure had begun approaching me—a tall, dark figure with long, curly hair—and I knew immediately who it was. He beamed as we came closer to one another. “So how’s the ritual going?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know…’ I said slyly. ‘Apparently I’m supposed to find a man to kiss.’
We had begun to circle one another. ‘Oh really? And how’s that going?’
‘I don’t know yet.’ I stopped in front and him and looked upward, attempting to fit his entire stature in my vision. ‘I’m supposed to find my Dionysus, and I think I’ve found him right here.’
‘Aww,’ he said, nearly blushing. ‘So what happens next?’
‘Just a kiss,’ I told him playfully.
‘Oh, how I’ve longed to kiss those heavenly lips.’ It wasn’t long before he took me into his arms. We walked together a small distance back to is tent where there was more privacy and shared our first kiss. I had never felt such incredible euphoria in my life. Afterward I was shaking and tingling, unable to comprehend what just happened.
He was forty-four, he told me. I was twenty-three. And yet the years between us felt like nothing. We held each other deep into the night—two strangers who believed ourselves mysteriously reunited under the stars.
The next day, we lay side by side in his tent. I gazed into his eyes and touched the contours of his face. ‘You look like my soul,’ I told him.
‘Your soul has a beard?’ He laughed.
‘Yes, actually,’ I said, and proceeded to expose my inner Jungian geek as I described the concept of anima and animus. He listened to what I had to say and found it interesting—which was comforting to me, knowing we had only grazed the tip of the iceberg of my glaring weirdness. Luckily I found out soon enough that we were both complete and utter weirdos who complimented one another in the best kind of way.
Nearly every other week since then, I have traveled across the state to visit him. The present is glorious and frightening. I look into his chestnut eyes and watch the love and fear of what it means to live at the burning point of our existence. Being with Julius has yielded the most incredible period of my life—full of all the light and darkness within me, manifesting now before my eyes in the external world. As above, so Below. I’ve told him of the mysticism of our meeting; his undeniable likeness to my main character (among countless other synchronicities), and he has embraced these notions without running.
I often remember the bullies from college who told me to give up on my difficult dreams, stop writing my series of novels—let it all go. But they were only the voices of cowardice and complacency, wanting to sabotage my pathway on the road less traveled. Love and dedication is never easy. Becoming vulnerable is terrifying, but here is the secret: there is power in vulnerability. There is power in love and compassion. Loving Julius and creating my art is exactly where I want to be.
Again, I am going to hold on.
*Maenad: a female follower of Dionysus.
