Madden Pilkerton is the artist behind Marie Duprez. Inspired by sparkles of light and beauty in everyday life, and by her maternal family lineage, Madden creates naturalistic motifs made out of clay to share the curiosity, determination, and strength found in the women who raised her. While she loves nature for what it is, her plants symbolize the fragility, vulnerability, and weakness associated with womanhood. When these flowers are made out of clay, they are pushed to their breaking point and in doing so, become even stronger.

Madden received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she won the Lester and Marcia Novy Memorial Award in 2024. Her curiosity extends beyond the studio; she biked alone from Barcelona to Athens through 13 countries in 47 days, and backpacked across the French Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Through her work, she hopes people slow down and look for their own sparkles of joy, even for just a moment.