Contact/About Me: - Kelly Joy Ladd

Kellyjoyladd@gmail.com

Artist Statement:

I explore how ritual and intention transform materials into vessels for love, connection, and healing. Working primarily with paper, and at times incorporating natural elements (water, ash, and soil), my art is guided by energy and shaped through intuition and ritual.

For three decades, I have investigated energy from both scientific and spiritual perspectives: studying physics and astronomy to understand how it moves through matter and space, while maintaining a meditation practice and exploring energetic healing. A lifelong curiosity about spirituality, astronomy, and the nature of infinity frames the conceptual foundation of my work. These experiences have shaped my understanding of energy as a tangible force that can be perceived, directed, and embedded into material form.

Each work begins with meditation and ritual. Through slow, repeated gestures of cutting, folding, tearing, and layering paper, I respond to the energy I intuitively perceive, shaping the invisible into form. I consciously infuse the work with universal energies such as love, joy, wonder, kindness, compassion, gratitude, and peace. The resulting objects hold these intentions and offer them to the viewer.

My art practice is grounded on the belief that art can channel universal energy and open space for reflection, connection, and transformation.

My practice aligns with the lineage of artists such as Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, and Guadalupe Maravilla, who explore spirituality, ritual, and unseen forces through material form.

“My art is grounded on the belief in one universal energy which runs through all being and matter, all space and time.” — Ana Mendieta

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” – Carl Sagan

Biography:

Ladd‘s work responds to themes of cosmic and creative mysteries, exploring inner and outer space, spiritually, the connection of all things and understanding the universe and our roles and purpose in it.

Ladd’s Liberal Studies degree from the University of Central Florida allowed her to opportunity to explore the subjects that peaked her curiosity like astronomy, physics, anthropology, environmental science and creative writing. During this time, she also discovered eastern philosophies and meditation, which has been a staple and major influence in her life and art practice.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 2019, she worked as a Disney World parade performer, music writer for HardRock.com, lifestyle editor and prop stylist for Parenting magazine and a freelance craft designer and blogger. All the while, she was developing her own creative style and unique techniques using paper as her main medium, due to her husband’s adverse health reactions to chemicals and paint.

In March 2020, Ladd experienced a significant head injury, which greatly affected her vision. Since then, she has been retraining her brain and eyes to refocus and track again. During her recovery when she wasn’t able to read, watch TV, or look at phones and computers, Ladd used this time, without outside distractions or influences, to devote her full attention to her art and meditation practices.

Her 3-D paper and mixed media work has been exhibited in the Orlando Museum of Art, Mint Museum and the Mennello Museum of American Art , as well as in the permanent collection for a number of hospitals.

Ladd’s intuitive artistic approach aligns her with her influences transcendental artists Hilma af Klint and Agnes Pelton.

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