Vibrating between image and object, my studio practice centers on manipulating self-fashioned and inherited textiles as I pair traditional surface design techniques with digitally manipulated imagery. Through the collection, documentation, and distortion of textiles from my hand-me-down archive, I elevate the domestic from personal to public. My artwork centers on transformations. Manipulating old garments into new forms blurs the lines of reconstruction, resurrection, and resilience. My grandmother taught me to sew to alter my hand-me-down clothing. Now, my work is rooted in the idea of upcycling. My grandmother made her family's clothing, bedding, and upholstery. When she passed, I inherited her ‘craft supplies,’ forming the bedrock of my interests in fiber and conservation. This foundation helped me develop a language around sustainability and textiles, influencing how I want my work to impact my community emotionally and intellectually and how it impacts the natural world.

Madison Nelson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, Illinois. Nelson is currently a professor in the art department at College of Dupage. She earned an MFA in the Fiber and Material Studies department at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Nelson was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and received her BFA with a concentration in Sculpture from Texas State University. She is the founder of the Sculpture Association at Texas State. Nelson was a curator and set designer for Wezmer and Texas String Assembly. She has a permanent installation and murals in Snappaheads Bar in San Marcos, Texas. She has exhibited through Surface Design Association at Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio; at Blue Star in San Antonio, Texas; Sam’s Town Point in Austin, Texas; Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas; FL3X Space Gallery in San Marcos, Texas; SAIC Galleries, Ohklahomo, and Mana Contemporary in Chicago, Illinois.  Nelson is the recipient of The Grace/Walter Smith grant and SAIC grant, and in 2020, was nominated for outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture at the International Sculpture Center. She has hosted sewing and mending workshops at Texas State University and 21c Museum Hotel. Nelson has lectured in the SAIC Fiber and Material Studies department, discussing her studio practice and research on thing theory and the semiotics and values ascribed to objects, textiles, styles, and craft discourses. She has publications through Surface Design Association, Not Real Art, The San Marcos Daily Record, Olas Literary Magazine, and online in SAIC Graduate Exhibitions 2024 and Fiber and Material Studies Graduate Students.