Maddy Buck
is an artist and lawyer
who creates
illustrated explanations of tech, law, and all things complex.
Law? Art? Do those things even go together?
Great question! I have wondered the same thing (too many times!) over the years. Let me give you a little bit more detail.
I believe that communicating complex ideas in a playful, visual way makes them easier to absorb.
Delight, humor, and joy have a place alongside our serious world, helping us to stay engaged and hopeful.
When the law is presented in simple, compelling ways, it is easier to see its impact on our lives and pinpoint what needs to be changed.
On top of that, I believe that everyone is creative and can draw.
(Stop saying, "I can't draw!" I don't believe you!)
#LetsDrawLaw
Using comics, zines, and illustrated newsletters, I write about the Constitution, the rule of law, and how everyone can play a part in protecting our democracy.
I use drawing to interpret and simplify complex concepts, translating them into accessible visuals.
For my illustration clients, my starting point is usually a complex text that needs simplifying.
I first pull out the key ideas to create a comic script, segmented by each panel.
Then, I use a simple illustration to visualize the key ideas.
I am currently working on a graphic (illustrated) memoir about law school and becoming a lawyer in the Trump era.
After a childhood insisting I was never going to be a lawyer, I convinced myself that law school was the surefire path to "success" in the style of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
In the land of prestige, cold calls, and subtle competition, I felt more out of place than ever before and had to get creative to find a way forward.
The graphic memoir is dotted with explainer pages on the quirks of American law schools, the laws that have shaped opportunity for women in the last 70 years, and of the forces that have succeeded in creating the most conservative U.S. Supreme Court in a generation.
Graphic Memoir
Comics, Zines, and Kid-Oriented Activities
My graphic narrative and comics work grew out of my practice of creating handmade books with watercolor collage illustrations.
One of my picture book zines, The Book of Anger, was a chosen winner in American Illustration 39 Online Archive, 2020, and is part of the zine collections at Oxford's Bodleian Old Library and Minnesota's Hennepin County library system.
My comics and zines have appeared in Revue Planches (in French), The Rumpus, The Minnesota Center for Book Arts New Edition Exhibitions, and the Graphic Medicine’s Covid Comics collection.
You can also find a kids watercolor activity I designed, along with a special reading of The Book of Anger, from the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Virtual Family Day: Coloring My Feelings.
For many years, I developed my art practice on the side of full-time roles as an attorney.
I balanced out the heavy days by making collage and ink picture book zines, kids activity books (Mad(dy) Libs, A Coloring Buck, The Book of Anger, and an activity designed for the Minneapolis Institute of Art), and drawing creatures on my walls in the evenings.
At first, I focused on emotions and autobiographical comics. Eventually, I incorporated this new art practice with my law background to explain and comment on timely legal issues.
Art and Law Developing Together
Tech & Law
Until recently, I worked in the legal technology start-up space, where I loved the fast-paced environment and emphasis on using technology to simplify workflows. During this time, I started drawing and writing about overlaps between law, art, and technology, particularly the issue of AI models being trained on copyrighted works. I also discovered that this new practice of simplifying ideas into text and image could be applied to discussions of technology.
Before pivoting from traditional law, I clerked for the Minnesota Supreme Court and developed a sense for how justices approach their work. I began to track the developments at the U.S. Supreme Court with this perspective in mind, growing increasingly concerned with just how much more politicized the Court's decisions were compared to what I had seen in my own state.
Drawing Through Law School
My path to becoming an artist started out in earnest at the University of Michigan Law School, where the urge to create irregular, colorful drawings arose as a reaction against, and a need to simplify, the dense legal texts I was studying. Sometimes drawing was the only way to stay awake in class or to memorize a particular concept.
While training as a lawyer, I learned how to read any text and grab its meaning so that I could explain it to others. Not only did this leave me frustrated at how unnecessarily complicated and opaque legal writing is, but it also showed me firsthand how a different form for communicating the same idea could make that idea so much more compelling.
Outside of Art
I maintain my law license and remain connected to my legal community, in particular as a member the Minnesota State Bar Association committee dedicated to determining how AI tools can be used to promote access to justice. l live in Minneapolis with my family and a large black dog named Bjørn-Knut. Oh, and I love playing tennis!