Meet the Artist
Ian Madin
Sculpture
Ian Madin has had no formal art education or training. He is a retired geologist, who worked in Oregon for his entire career. Much of that time he spent in the field studying rocks, which gives him a deep connection to individual pieces of stone he finds. The first thing a geologist does upon encountering any rock in the field is to break it with a hammer, because the inside always looks different from the outside, and he loves that moment of revelation.In 2018, he started bringing home some of the more elegantly shaped and patinaed pieces he was finding in his work, and experimented with polishing one or two faces of each. Since then he has been working steadily to advance my knowledge and skill with stone working tools, joining the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association and attending their symposia. He has expanded the types of stone he works with and has participated in two open studio shows and begun to sell his work. In 2023 he created a series of sculptures to accompany the premiere of the Oregon Origins Project : Seven Wonders show. In January 2024 he was the featured sculptor in Sculpture Northwest Magazine. He has been accepted for a 2024 residency at the Playa Center for Art and Science.
Ian makes sculptures based on natural shapes and patinas of stone foraged in Oregon. He finds stones he can shape and polish to juxtapose the natural and worked surfaces. He shapes and polishes with a wet grinder and diamond polishing pads and blades. He uses latex coatings to preserve natural surfaces while working, and sealants on some surfaces to enhance color. He uses scrap steel, countertop stone, or found stones for bases of mounted pieces. Most pieces are between 6-24 inches in maximum dimension.