Fionna Madigan - Class Of 1986
"SPIRITUAL CONNECTION DRIVES ART"
Fionna has many significant memories of her years at Loreto Toorak. In Grade 3, her favourite class was Art and Craft, although she admits to not being very good at sewing. With astonishment, she would steal glances at other students’ patchwork quilts, the hexagonal templates nice and even, while hers were such a shambles.
She did love painting! Sometimes, Ms Dillon, with her red hair and formidable spirit, would let Fionna keep painting into the lunch hour, well after the bell had rung. She remembers vividly painting the Three Wise Men for which she won a City of Stonnington Christmas Art Competition.
After school, Fionna embarked on an Arts Degree at the University of Melbourne, and later returned to study Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts. Her drive to create was ever-present but life circumstances were not always conducive to giving it focus. In 2017, Fionna developed Morgellons disease, a condition which presents significant physical and mental challenges. At this time, she was driven to reconnect with her spiritual self, and this connection now strongly informs her art practice.
In 2018, she commenced an arts residency at the Dunmoochin Foundation, established by celebrated Australian Artist, Clifton Pugh, in the beautiful surrounds of Cottles Bridge. Fionna is currently working on commissions for a private client, some new pieces for West End Artspace in West Melbourne, and work for an upcoming group show, Nillumbik Landscapes, at Gallery Seven 6 Four.
Fionna’s many career highlights include winning the Mayoral award at the Nillumbik Contemporary Art Prize (2019) and the Fairfield Art for All Art Show in 2020. She was a finalist in the Bay of Fires Art Prize (Tasmania), the Adelaide Parklands Art Prize, and the Boynes International Emerging Artist Award.
Growing up, there was never a dull moment in her home. Life was busy and chaotic, and sometimes, less than harmonious. Her parents were strong believers in a Catholic education, and for Fionna, Loreto Toorak was a place where the constancy of values, the rituals of a faith-based education, and the dependability and comfort of strong friendships provided a predictable base from which she continually reorients herself to this day.
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