Releasing the Forms Within: James Madison, Storyteller and Craftsman
Tulalip artist James Madison reflects on learning to listen to the wood.
Master carver James Madison carries a chainsaw through his shop on a weekday morning. He’s wearing a Tulalip Red Hawks hooded sweatshirt and leather work boots dusted in curled wood shavings. He’s headed to a shed to put a motorized cutting chain to a 998-year-old reclaimed Western Red Cedar.
Inside the studio, long ribbons of cedar shavings are piled on the gravel floor next to a Shop-Vac. Rusty chains are piled in the corner, and a level hangs from a nail on the wall.
This is a place where spirit meets materiality.
Often James Madison works with cedar. But really, he works with almost any artistic material — yellow cedar, glass, stone, bronze, and fabricated metal — honing each medium to accommodate his cultural and aesthetic intuitions. He’s one of those rare artists who can hop from media to media effortlessly. Indeed, right now he’s working on three pieces in three different locations, simultaneously. Each tells a story.
One definition of genius — being able to hold multiple ideas in your mind at one time.
In the shop, he’s honed the old cedar into the shape of a thirteen-foot orca dorsal fin. The “fin” rests on a half-dozen sawhorses underneath scaffolding and fluorescent lights.
“The wood is like a spirit or a ghost,” Madison says. “It speaks to me. My grandfather used to tell me to listen to the wood.” A knot or a warp in the trunk isn’t a mistake: it’s a form yet to be realized.
At nights Madison dreams of what the cedar wants to be, what spirits are in the material, trying to be let out.
The next morning he goes to the shed, selects his tools from a leather holster and starts working. I watch him thunk-thunk-thunk with a custom-made adze, slowly defining the domed crest of a sasquatch scalp. Madison is releasing the forms within the material.
He approaches each piece of artwork with a message, even if he only understands that message intuitively at the outset of the project.
“I basically see something and I let Mother Nature take over; I let it tell me what it’s supposed to be. It’s the way my culture is, the way I was raised.”
![](https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=5d9a57c65a719a9e83572fce9cd0935e 320w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=4eedfdcdaae8dc6d0b66f1c7cfd72509 540w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=06f6c3a72472f3412786faaaaebe09b7 768w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=129e3faae3b4b3a94904f6caea2a8c9b 1024w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=bd2dae71e62e586289edd8d7094d79a8 1200w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1440&s=857d93a0b8cc5e923145ffa9d6868619 1440w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1920&s=bec528b6f03844bb3b33ce9ceab93897 1920w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=2560&s=ed535da93be4b7dcf36becf5f4dd4a19 2560w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5156.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=3840&s=1f8b22980f3d0327e8aa6f9f31453e83 3840w)
The spirit of the piece that James is working on in the carving shed today is that of a grandfather Bigfoot. The muscular sasquatch is depicted walking to a river with his two sons. The old Bigfoot teaching them how to catch salmon.
In the cultural tradition of Madison’s family, Sasquatch isn’t a scared animal running from a video camera. Instead, he’s a brother to man, a helper, a conduit of the old ways.
James Madison’s cultural heritage is that of the Tulalip peoples. The Tulalip Tribes are comprised of thirteen Northwest Coast indigenous families. After the signing of the Treaty at Point Elliot in 1859, the US Government relocated these families to a reservation, north of present-day Everett, Washington for “education” and assimilation into white culture. Today, the Tulalip Tribes are a self-governed entity of about 4,000 members.
Almost always personal to some degree, James Madison’s stories are most often Tulalip stories, specifically the lore of the Coast Salish/Tlingit Nation.
Growing up, James wanted to be a football player. After a failed attempt to play college ball (a coach stood him up in another state) James moved back to the Tulalip Reservation. He was unsure what he wanted to do.
He decided to study visual art and media, first at Everett Community College, then at the University of Washington. His main focuses were bronze casting and jewelry classes.
He became absorbed in his studies. To hear James describe it, what he felt was something like a calling. He was supposed to be an artist.
“[I was attracted to] Cubism at school... surrealism, Dali. Van Gogh influenced me the most out of European artists. I was fascinated with Cubism, abstraction, and Van Gogh’s colors.
These modern and Western influences add a unique “flavor” to Madison’s carvings and sculptures, in which the viewer can pick up elements of cubism and the assemblage of Picasso.
“I studied a lot of different media at the university, [especially] metal fabrication. I cut things out of metal, welded them together, creating sculptures.”
![](https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=d70ae0295307a05ab99567c0fadd975e 320w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=6ecc21e03ae4fa8052b5526248b2568f 540w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=35781322b66dded70f4dd5bd5aae7b36 768w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=d9d762ae533c193bf42c286689fdbc84 1024w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=aeb3d6a8652d1d2c85ae91761d932066 1200w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1440&s=751da858ff4c410af0133e743f487228 1440w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1920&s=e81cd48736388278b94bfb6ab9ade4c9 1920w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=2560&s=a08f5bb484a946d3057bebe7a60cc643 2560w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5246.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=3840&s=19b2f7e635cb69291fff84656a829660 3840w)
Today, James Madison works at a variety of studios and workshops, depending on which project he’s working on. Sometimes he works with a chainsaw or adze in a carving shed. Sometimes he “pops up” at regional glass studios. Metal fabrication, bronze casting, and stonework each require different venues and processes for creation.
James is widely recognized both regionally and in the art community. He’s commissioned to custom-make pieces: carved canoe paddles, maps, giant sculptures, and totem poles for private residences.
“I feel very fortunate,” he says of his career. “It’s a dream job, a dream occupation. I got a lot of support from my tribe, my people, the county, the city of Everett. I’ve been very very appreciated and loved. I’m very grateful.”
Madison has been on the Snohomish County Art Commission. He’s an art advocate, lobbying for sculpture parks, raising money for arts programs. His work can be seen in public sculpture parks, downtown urban sidewalks, and at the Tulalip Hibulb Cultural Center.
But in the end, all of James Madison’s efforts are in the service of relaying invaluable information. He sees himself as a conduit.
“Everything I do has a story to it, has information about my culture, historical stories, stories passed down from my grandfather to my father, to me. Stories so far back we can’t remember how far back.”
His are tales that need to be told. His are forms that need to be released.
![](https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=976270915660246fadffbbbabe3aa87b 320w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=25d788bfe874a1ef888836f5a9e532eb 540w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=5942f666a5adad0d79eb2b684d005a8d 768w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=c509faac1762ede092b9dcc959e49669 1024w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=d0ef06ba76a090081853f77aa0804658 1200w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1440&s=164e808a5b29f0440f353c7b9663526d 1440w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1920&s=638855b3317022b763e6c3a29fe973e1 1920w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=2560&s=d6a143b51c4664f9e4d022e0dfa9d6dd 2560w, https://snohomish.imgix.net/images/archive/Jake-Campbell-190403_James_Madison_5297.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=3840&s=f174e55456f818a0233fd753933ed2de 3840w)
Where to see his work
“Diving rock.”
Totemic image of a man grappling with an octopus, representing water power.
- Tulalip Tribes Admin. Building
- 6406 Marine Dr, Tulalip Bay, WA 98271
“Raven Captures the Sun.”
Fabricated metal cube with Tlingit and Salish design motifs.
- Centennial Trail
- Fifth Street, Arlington, WA 98223
“Mother Earth.”
18’ driftwood sculpture portrait located on the spot where the Point Elliott Treaty was signed.
- Lighthouse Park, Mukilteo
- 609 Front St, Mukilteo, WA 98275
“Tulalip People.”
Cubed metal sculpture featuring salmon climbing a fish ladder.
- Kayak Point Regional Park, Stanwood
- 15711 Marine Dr, Stanwood, WA 98292
“Kia.”
Totemic 135’ portrait of Madison’s great grandmother, carved from a 998-year-old tree.
- Hibulb Cultural Center & Natural History Preserve, Tulalip
- 6410 23rd Ave NE, Tulalip, WA 98271