Most people wouldn’t think of hurricane season as a time to form a lifelong passion. But that’s exactly what happened for local artist Nancy Ladner.
Ladner, 45, says she had always been “artsy,” but she never turned that into a hobby until Hurricane Gustav hit in 2008.
“We didn’t have power for two weeks,” says Ladner, a Baton Rouge native. “So I was bored and started painting and fell in love with it.”
Ladner now sells her pieces out of her garage, as well as via Facebook and Instagram and at the Velvet Cactus.
Her work isn’t just limited to those places, though: It also adorns the walls of her apartment.
She’s customized her unit’s interior with her own particular flair, painting walls and hanging accent pieces. While some might be too intimidated to do serious decorating at an apartment they may only live in temporarily, the thought of repainting and refilling holes on the walls when she moves out someday doesn’t bother Ladner.
And in the meantime, she’s transformed her apartment into a home that’s truly her own.
Branch: After seeing a photo of the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam, which has a branch attached to its ceiling, Ladner was inspired to cut a branch off a tree and place it in her home in a similar way. The branch is now a fixture on her living room ceiling. The decorations hanging from the branch change depending on the holiday. When Easter rolled around, small, colorful Easter egg and rabbit decorations hung from the branch.
Artwork in Ladner’s bedroom: Ladner makes a point to support other local artists, so her bedroom is covered with works by Jade Brady, Wade Boudreaux and Dori Aucoin. She doesn’t have any of her own pieces up in her bedroom. She is such a perfectionist when it comes to her own art that she says she would never get to sleep “trying to see what I could have done better.”
Chalk wall: The wall behind her bed shows a chalk rendition of New York City’s skyscraper-filled landscape. Ladner says she applied two coats of chalk paint before tracing out her version of the Big Apple’s backdrop. She says she has always loved New York, even though she’s never been. For now, visiting the city is “on her bucket list.” She plans on replacing the chalk cityscape with a drawing of angel wings when she gets tired of the city landscape. The wings, she says, are for a sense of “protection.”
Large artwork around her apartment: The walls in the rest of her apartment showcase some of her own pieces. Large statement pieces are her favorite to make, so most of them take up a good bit of wall space. “I want to do something over the top and grandiose,” she says.
“Doll Garage”: Ladner’s 23-year-old daughter, Kelly Perot, named the double garage Ladner rents in her complex the “Doll Garage” because Perot would bring her girlfriends—the “dolls”—over and use it as a hangout spot. “It sort of morphed into this bohemian café-like feel,” Ladner says. Her friends and family have written their favorite quotes on the walls, but her personal favorite is: “If I have met you in some way or form, you have inspired me.”
—NATALIE REINA
