About Us
Madalene and Sam met in high school while working together on the school's underground newspaper, stirring up trouble. Whenever they weren't engaged in sedition, they hung out as friends, Sam begging rides in Madalene's 1978 yellow Toyota Corolla (better known as the Bananamobile), and seeing live music together. After Madalene moved to Boulder to attend University of Colorado, Sam began visiting on an occasional basis. They finally got together in 1997 after a romantic lunch of falafel on Pearl Street Mall, and continued to drive back and forth between Boulder and Fort Collins to see each other throughout Madalene's undergraduate years.
In 2001 they moved to St. Louis, MO, where Madalene was attending graduate school. Sam spent time working at Washington University Medical School, fixing projection equipment and filming autopsies, while Madalene earned a Master's in Biomedical Engineering. Sam went on to work at the Saint Louis Science Center, running their demonstration programs (live Bill Nye-type shows, all day every day!), and Madalene worked as a laser technician at a laser eye surgery center.
While in St. Louis they made great friends with their neighbors in University City, enjoyed walking to the nearby falafel shop, and visiting the free zoo over lunch breaks. They were heavily involved in arts performance groups in town, and helped to found Pandora's Matchbox, the premiere fire performance troupe in the St. Louis area, performing at casinos, art galleries, the City Museum, and just about anywhere people would allow them to light their torches and staves.
After reveling in the underground arts scene in St. Louis for 6 years, they moved to Boulder, CO, so Sam could help found a solar installation company called Sunflower Solar. The business prospered, and was sold to a larger company. Sam stayed on as the Chief Designer, and designed photovoltaic arrays for thousands of homes and businesses across the country. Madalene joined the team at a forensic lab, as head of Quality Control, building a department dedicated to producing accurate results and new techniques from the ground up.
Sam and Madalene couldn't stay out of the local arts world, and in 2008 helped to found a local art cooperative that rents a 2300 sq. ft. warehouse for local artists and craftspeople to share space in for projects and art. With 20+ members, the Phoenix Asylum holds monthly art openings, houses many successful local artists, and has served as a construction location for large scale grant funded works such as Ars Pristinus, a 16' tall steel sculpture, covered in runes, with electric lighting, a large fire cauldron, and three massive flame throwers which can be heard from a mile away.
They currently live in downtown Boulder, walking distance from the Pearl St. mall, and spend their weekends biking to the community garden, working at the Phoenix Asylum, and walking to the shops and restaurants on the mall.