Cynthia Ladds’ visual poetry in 'Waking Up'
By Ekin Balcıoğlu Jan 13, 2025 Updated Jan 16, 2025

Cynthia Ladds’ exhibition "Waking Up," on view at BEESpoke Boutique and Art Café through Feb. 2, immerses viewers in the work of an artist who seamlessly bridges tradition and experimentation. With a career spanning decades and mediums, Ladds continues to explore what she describes as “the interconnectedness of all things,” delving into themes of time, transformation and the delicate balance between movement and stillness.

Based in Northern New Mexico, Ladds draws deeply from the region’s light and landscape, which she finds “enlivening,” though her roots on the East Coast remain an undercurrent in her work. Her creative practice is as varied as the natural world itself, encompassing monochromatic drawings, mixed-media paintings and organic clay sculptures. Each piece offers its own distinct voice while contributing to a larger conversation about perception and materiality.

The works on display in "Waking Up" demonstrate Ladds’ mastery of nuance and her ability to transform seemingly simple elements into complex, evocative compositions. Pieces like "Winter Forest" and "Leaves Rising" are rendered in rich blacks and grays, their gestural marks and layered shadows capturing moments of quiet intensity. These monochromatic works, she says, are rooted in her fascination with “moments of transition and transformation,” a theme that recurs throughout her practice.


In contrast, Ladds’ use of color in works like "Thistle Song Three" is almost startling in its vitality. Bold yellows and purples vibrate against deep greens, creating a rhythm that feels at once organic and otherworldly. The painting invites viewers to consider not just what they see but what they feel, as if “the boundaries between reality and imagination blur,” as Ladds puts it.


Her clay pieces feel like objects imbued with both history and possibility. Ladds describes her clay works as “simple organic projects” that act as vessels — both literal and metaphorical — for ideas about time, memory and touch. They carry a tactile immediacy that contrasts with the more ephemeral qualities of her drawings and paintings, grounding her practice in physicality.
Ladds’ work often draws inspiration from her admiration for artists like Matisse, O’Keeffe and Calder, as well as devotional traditions of the Middle East. These influences merge in her process of layering and juxtaposition, which she uses to invite viewers to “delve beneath the surface, encouraging them to question, reflect, and reimagine.” It’s this conceptual layering, as much as the literal one, that gives her work its depth and resonance


Themes of peace, memory and the passage of time thread through the exhibition, reflecting what Ladds describes as the “intricacies of the human condition.” Whether working in paint, ink or clay, her practice is united by a commitment to exploring what lies beyond the visible. She aims to create spaces of contemplation, where the viewer can pause and reconnect with the present moment — a goal that feels especially urgent in today’s fragmented world.


Ultimately, Ladds sees her art as an invitation to engage, not just visually but emotionally and intellectually. “I strive to create spaces of contemplation and discovery,” she writes, “where moments of beauty and insight can flourish, transcending boundaries of time, space, and medium.” With "Waking Up," Cynthia Ladds offers viewers a chance to reflect on the connections that bind us to the natural world, to one another, and to ourselves.

FYI
"Waking Up"
Cynthia Ladds' exploration of time, transformation and the delicate balance between movement and stillness.
Through February 2, 2025
B.E.E.Spoke Boutique and Art Café, 
132 Bent Street,
Taos, New Mexico


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