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Meet the artist on March 28th at the Dave Mason Performance! 7pm-9pm.
Jade Brady was born in South Louisiana in 1984. First introduced to art at the age of four as a way to transform her emotional trauma into creative healing, it would take Jade many years to return to art. Though never having strayed from her drive towards healing, her journey took her in many directions. She graduated from Louisiana State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Sciences with the intent on becoming a reconstructive surgeon. She imagined she would help her patients heal through a physical, visual change, and in turn, heal herself. Soon she realized her drive to heal needed to be channeled through art, not medicine.
Jade’s artwork is not only reflective of her emotional healing; it is the healing itself. With her first works made with acrylics and tar expressing dark, moody undertones and reflecting a turbulent emotional state focusing on seeking beauty through darkness and solitude. Through the years, however, Jade’s artwork has brightened in color and sharpened in focus, revealing a restorative, life-centric outlook. Her current work centers on abstract florals, expressing how life’s beauty is found in the most delicate and vulnerable of moments.
Jade has been commissioned for projects by the Children’s Hospital of New Orleans, has works in the permanent collection of the East Baton Rouge Public Library System alongside artists such as Clementine Hunter, and has donated her time and works for dozens of regional and international charities.
Jade lives and works in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, creating wholeness through her artwork.
You can’t heal what you won’t feel. I’m Jade Brady, deep feeler and chronic over thinker. Words often fall short, or emotions come so quickly that shapes and colors become my language. My work is but a remnant… a shell… a record of the experience I had while creating it. My canvas holds space for whatever I’m willing to expose. However deep I’m capable of digging and however vulnerable I can be determines the healing that can take place while I paint.
Art is healing. My creative practice is equally driven by process and by deep emotional responses to the things around me. I often begin a painting by applying large washes of acrylics and inks, allowing gravity to play its role. These fast-drying mediums allow me to build up layers quickly and the process itself is very freeing. Once something interesting begins to emerge, I use collage and more layers of paint to bring what I like into focus. Pulling out shapes and layering handmade papers, covering what is already there is a tactile healing. Through this process the painting evolves, each mark influencing the next. My collection “(Un)Bloomed Womb” blossomed out of my journey through infertility. Creating this work carried me through the grief, doubt, fear, vulnerability, and rage that comes with infertility and loss. Expressing myself in this way has given me hope and comfort knowing that even in the darkest of times, I will always have a glimmer of joy and acceptance through the act of creating.
Through exploring how colors interact and how suggested line continuation can direct a composition, I’ve learned to manipulate shapes, pattern, and detailed contrast to direct the eye around a work. I labor to give the viewer a hint of the familiar (botanical shapes using nature as inspiration) that pulls them in without revealing too much as to allow each person to have a unique viewing experience based on who they are and what they see through their own lens. I often challenge just how much one canvas can hold, how much one viewer can take in. My efforts strive to achieve a balanced composition that still feels curiously creative. My process often leads to works that can be seen as finished or unfinished, mirroring the healing that is still underway.
Please note: The Jones Walker Foyer is a public space.