Art Connections–one art develops another. Conversation with Louise Ladd

Louise Ladd is a strong example of a multli-talented creative person. Now a writer-editor-teacher she’s no stranger to performance and painting. Since the mission of Riehlife is to create connections through the arts and across cultures, I’m delighted to share our short conversation.
–Janet

Janet: I find that nothing is ever wasted. My ear for music has helped my writing, performing, and visual artwork. These are all connected inside ourselves, and cannot be separated–even if we tried.

Louise: I agree. I often say that I learned how to write by taking an acting workshop for eight years and performing on stage. For about twenty years I produced a small summer theater, and midway through began to write. I found a normal 8-5 job didn’t fit well with the 12 hour a day job–especially not when raising three kids.

So I wrote September through April. I switched to theater from May through August. It worked well. I found that everything I’d learned in my theater work–such as creating improvisations, behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances, using urgency and conflict to create drama–all applied directly to writing.

I also used to paint. I could lose myself for hours while perfecting the shape of a flower, just as I sometimes do when the writing flows (as opposed to the days when I pull out one word at a time, like teeth).

I believe all the arts are interlinked, simply expressing themselves in different forms.