Learn about Madonna’s work in nursing:

Madonna Walters is an artist who was born and grew up in the Traverse City area and now lives in southern Michigan. She is known for her large color-field abstract paintings. She has also painted under the name Madonna Walters Ballance in the past. Her roots are in Leelanau County, where she was raised on the family farm, and where she found her earliest inspiration to paint. “I think it was the combination of enormous open spaces and the relentless power of Lake Michigan, the lakeshore, and the ever-present wind that affected my art,” says Madonna.

Madonna spent many years in Traverse City, including her time as an art student at Northwestern Michigan College (NMC), where she trained with Paul Welch, Norm Averill, and Jack Ozegovic. She also trained at the University of MIchigan School of Architecture & Design between 1967-69. Madonna’s art training overlapped with nursing school, and she completed an Associate’s Degree in Nursing (Northwestern Michigan College), a BSN (University of Michigan School of Nursing), and a master’s in public health (University of Michigan).

“My first exposure to the NMC Art Department was in the basement of the original administrative wing, just off the original Army Barracks Building. There, on most days you could hear Paul Welch singing opera or Fats Domino to a scratchy LP on a beat-up turntable. It was a tiny department, with barely room for your easel and supplies, but it was the most creatively charged environment I have ever experienced.” Later, this was replaced by the new art building–an architect’s dream with enormous windows that provided unparalleled natural light. “I painted in both environments, and I can honestly say that NMC was like a soup kettle of creative invention. Students were continuously working and pushing each other to try new things.”

Madonna’s media include acrylic on canvas, acrylic on paper, airbrush, and watercolor. She has been inspired by the work of artists who used vibrant wet colors, including Paul Jenkins, Georgia O’Keefe, and Helen Frankenthaler, to name a few.

She has displayed and sold her work widely in the Midwest, including Chicago and Columbus. Madonna has previously been represented by a range of galleries, including Collector’s Showroom (Chicago, IL), Gallery 200 (Columbus, OH), the Mission Gallery (Old Mission, MI), and the Artful Exchange Gallery (Ann Arbor, MI). Art collections featuring her work have included ALL-STEEL, Inc (Chicago), The Pace Collection (Chicago), Ohio Edison Corp (Columbus, OH), Dow Chemical (Columbus, OH), and the Dennos Museum (Traverse City, MI)

While working full-time as a nurse, Madonna continued to paint, some years more than others. Since retiring from full-time management, she now works part-time in trauma education in southern Michigan. She does not feel that the two careers are emotionally disparate. For more about nursing and art, see this Scrubs Magazine article from 2010.