Martine Compton is a Metro-Detroit-based artist.  After having her first short story published at 15, Ms. Compton has published cartoons, verse, fiction, and essays for numerous publications as varied as The Midwestern Worker out of Chicago, and Damazine: The Voice of the Arab World out of Damascus, Syria.  She writes travel articles, most recently for the Beijing-based newspaper, The Global Times.  An active member of the H.O.H. (Hard-of-Hearing) and Deaf Community, Ms. Compton sounds her voice to modernize global standards of living for the handicapable.

She can be reached at wordsmithforhire@gmail.com.

MUSIC: FROM APPRENTICE TO JOURNEYMAN TO…

Ms. Compton studied voice at age fifteen with Detroit legend Bess Bonnier, a legally blind singer-songwriter and producer of over thirty jazz albums.  At her first solo concert she sang a medley of jazz-age songs at the Grosse Pointe Performing Arts Center with The Brokensha Quartet and with Bess Bonnier accompanying at piano.  In 1992 at the age of sixteen, Ms. Compton performed at Carnegie Hall with The Grosse Pointe Women’s Ensemble and other choirs John Rutter’s Magnificat for Midwest Productions, conducted by the composer.

While studying art at Loyola University’s Rome, Italy, campus in 1999, she met singer and poet Andrea Halloran.  The two began writing lyrics and original piano compositions in collaboration, and performed in Monte Mario.   After graduating with a full-ride scholarship from Loyola University of Chicago, Ms. Compton apprenticed singer and composer Louise Cloutier, founder of Voiceborne, whom she considers a great artistic and personal influence.

In 2009, in pursuit of the cause of an abnormal MRI for which Ms. Compton was first diagnosed as having a brain tumor, the artist sought a second opinion.  Through the University Hospital of Michigan, she learned of her congenital condition: Branchio-oto-renal syndrome.  She has since become an advocate of hard-of-hearing musicians in her work and personal life.  In 2011, Ms. Compton and Ms. Halloran co-founded the woman-owned, Michigan-based sound company Patient Records.

Ms. Compton records through Omni Sounds out of Nashville, Tennessee, and Ms. Halloran through RedBird Studio in New York, New York.  Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Maggie Cocco (formerly of Cocco Music and former lead singer of Science for Sociopaths) was also a latter-coming, co-founding artist, though she has since moved on to independent work in New Zealand.

Patient Records is based out of Rochester, Michigan, the home town of Leader Dogs For the Blind.

INPATIENT MAGAZINE & INPATIENT ARTWORKS

In May of 2001, Ms. Compton launched the print literary magazine, INPATIENT, out of Chicago’s North Side neighborhood, Rogers Park.   The quarterly journal, which during its run was consistently nominated for Z Magazine‘s Zine of the Year, featured poetry, short fiction, photography, travel writing, interviews with artists, political journalism, satire and cartoons.  Compton served as Editor in Chief for her co-founders, artists Joseph Witkowski and K.P. Dawes.  Contributors for INPATIENT included Tamas Frank, Gene Tanta, Ramona Ciupag, Carol Jane Rudy, Lowell Kempf, Maya Nitis, Marina Jurassi, Bill Burns, James Pate, Patty Burns, sisters Annie and Renee McGurk, and Susan and Julie Bertoni (the artist’s sisters), among others. Joseph Witkowski’s iconic comic-inspired illustrations graced all five covers of the magazine which can be viewed at iatrogenicart.com.  John McCrary was webmaster of the now defunct site. Quartet Copiers of Evanston printed the periodical at near cost in order to support the local artists of Rogers Park.  The magazine staff went on to found INPATIENT ARTWORKS, for which Ms. Compton worked as an actress and model, most recently for Jennifer Brown’s  Under the Root fashion, now independently based out of Seattle, Washington.

Martine Compton is a pen name created from the author’s mother’s first name, Martina, and maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Compton.