A Trophy—along with Throughline, and Spotted Cow—tests how the preparation of parchment affects dye penetration. This piece features calfskin that degraded in a lime bath during the dehairing stage. It fell apart during stretching and became a large misshapen piece of vibrant pink parchment. I used its color, a result of fresh and unbleached (then chemically damaged) skin, as inspiration for an abstract acrylic painting, which is encased by a strip of the degraded calfskin.

A Trophy is part of Madison’s MFA thesis exhibition, Glimpsing Mirrors. The work is about internal dialogue, isolation, and loneliness.