Artist Profile: Madison Beaulieu - Family Life Publications

Created To Make You Smile — Madison Beaulieu Celebrates Feeling Good Through Art

By Ellen Samsell Salas

Graphic designer Madison Beaulieu has her hands full. She crafts letterpress cards and stickers through her boutique paper company, showcases local artists in pop-up shops, and joins talents with her husband, Dusty, in their graphic design business. Working with the City of Woodstock, her most recent endeavor is a retail gallery that includes a studio where artists can exchange ideas and create.

At the heart of each of these endeavors are Beaulieu’s love of her home (she grew up in Woodstock), her desire to make people smile, and her desire to bring the community closer to its artists.

“I don’t want to make art in a vacuum,” she said. “I enjoy the connections that come from making art. I love the feedback from making art for real people.”

The mural that reimagines a once blank alleyway in downtown Canton exemplifies Beaulieu’s drive to connect. In conjunction with the Canton Cultural Arts Committee, Beaulieu and fellow artist Brook Schmidt filled the wall with large, colorful flowers whose bold swirling shapes dance across the space and invite viewers to take their photos with it to commemorate their visit.

In the interplay of minimal text, line drawings, and a few splashes of color, Beaulieu’s greeting cards celebrate holidays and birthdays, and extend congratulations and warm hellos. Similarly, her cartoon-style stickers encourage viewers to celebrate each day.

“When I make cards,” she said, “I think about whether it’s a card I would like to receive. We need more positive messages in the world today.”

Tapping into her love of paper and ink, Beaulieu uses her 1970s tabletop letterpress to print her cards on unique, textured paper. Although she majored in graphic design at the University of North Georgia, her first love is printmaking.

“It’s my personal thing,” she said. “It’s tactile. I like the construction. The process is always soothing, and you can make a lot of different variations of something.”

Beaulieu has turned her childhood passions of collaging and journaling into ventures that enhance the community’s creative spirit. She looks ahead, saying, “I have lots of ideas, maybe too many. I’m planting the seeds of what I’ll next create.”

To see more of Beaulieu’s work, please visit BeauPaper.co or Facebook.com/madsbeaulieu.