Joy M Keldsen

Artist Statement

Joy Keldsen is a South Jersey therapist and retired Air Force veteran who uses art as a means of expression and emotional healing. She uses multiple techniques including fluid acrylic paint pouring and traditional brush work to create landscapes and dreamscapes that speak to the wandering heart and the soul searcher. Art is therapy. This is true for the artist and the viewer. In her work as a therapist and in her artwork, she aims to find the calm in the chaos.

Over time, Joy’s practice has changed and evolved from traditional landscapes, to paint pouring, and finally to combining the two into dreamscapes and abstract paintings. After the initial paint pour is dry, Joy uses her creative eye to “see” what she sees in the painting, much like a Rorschach ink blot test. The painting evolves over time with the expressive mood of the artist with more traditional brushwork.

Joy began landscape painting while stationed in Hawaii as a fun thing to do with her best friend. Through traditional painting, Joy found a means to express herself when she found her emotions too scary to express verbally. Joy found fluid acrylic paint pouring years later at a very hard spot in her life, amidst major life changes where she felt very out of control. This technique re-taught Joy how to let go and play, how to be out of control and enjoy it, and how to be more present. By combining pour painting with traditional landscapes, Joy depicts the calm that can be found in the chaos, the known with the unknown, the reality in the dream.