Kellyjoyladd@gmail.com

Artist Statement:

My art practice is rooted in the understanding that works of art function as carriers of energy, transmitting subtle forces through material form. Informed by decades of study in physics, astronomy, and spiritual inquiry, I investigate how forces such as intention, love, and memory are embedded in objects and felt by those who encounter them.

I work primarily with paper, building three-dimensional relief sculptures through a variety of texture techniques. I incorporate natural materials like water and soil, collected with purpose from specific and meaningful locations, like Wekiva Springs, a place that has been sacred to me for most of my life. Memories and energy of these places are held within the elements themselves and transmitted into the work.

Through intention and my training in energetic healing, I embed specific energies, like love, joy, wonder, kindness, compassion, gratitude, and peace, into the work as I make it. The finished work radiates these energies.

My practice is in dialogue with Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, and Guadalupe Maravilla, whose work engages ritual, spirituality, and the rendering of unseen phenomena into physical form, and with Ana Mendieta, whose work explores the energetic memory of materials and place.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

“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:

Kelly Joy Ladd is a visual artist based in Orlando, Florida. Her work explores art as a carrier of energy, transmitting intention, love, and memory through material form. She creates three-dimensional paper and mixed media relief sculptures and uses spiritual energies (love, joy, wonder, kindness, compassion, gratitude, and peace) as artistic mediums. She also incorporates water and soil collected from meaningful places, including Wekiva Springs, where memory and energy are held within the elements themselves. Her practice draws on studies in physics, astronomy, and Eastern philosophy, and is in dialogue with the work of Hilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, Agnes Pelton, and Ana Mendieta.

Ladd was a finalist for the 2025 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. She is a 2026 Halo Arts Fellow and received a 2024-25 and 2026-27 Individual Artist Grant from United Arts of Central Florida. Her work has been exhibited at the Mint Museum, the DeLand Museum of Art, and the Mennello Museum of American Art, and is held in hospital collections.

Ladd is the founder of Artists on Couches, a long-term conceptual art project she has documented daily since 2022. Through a digital archive on Instagram (@artistsoncouches), she invites visual artists from around the world to explore and share the mysteries behind their work, including intuition, inspiration, flow, the creative process, the source of ideas, and the experience of creation itself. The project takes shape through collective energy, shared experience, and exchange.

 

Contact me:

Kellyjoyladd@gmail.com

 

Photo by Anavi Photography