Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident- October 2024, Long-Term Resident 2025-2026
Kelly McLaughlin grew up in Washington State where she received her BFA from Pacific Lutheran University in 2014. She completed a Post Baccalaureate program at the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 2017 and received her MFA in Ceramics from Ohio University in 2020. After graduate school, McLaughlin was a summer resident at the Archie Bray Foundation, a long-term resident at Studio 740 from 2020-2023, and a returning fall resident at the Bray in 2022. She is moving to Red Lodge from Helena, MT, where she was a resident at Omerta Arts from 2024-2025. Her work has been showcased throughout the US and can be found in numerous private and public collections.
Humans are in constant flux: who we were, are, and will become continuously shifting and distorting to adapt to circumstance. This change and uncertainty are central motifs in my work, as they are in my life. Though our own experiences often feel isolating, that state of distortion and struggle is a hugely shared experience and connection point to the people around us. I focus on these moments not to exalt the idea and labor of endurance, but rather share in the vulnerability of unknown consequences. The all-consuming headspace and anxiety of questioning: Can I survive this? How have I changed? Why? When? Who am I now? Through my sculptural research, I explore dualities, uncertainty, and belief structures throughout history, and how they affect us on both micro and macro scales. Using human and animal figures, I can create a familiar visual access point, alongside human-scale, realism, movement, emotionalism, and gesture. I examine those in-between spaces; depicting moments that recall questioning and conflict, moral dilemma, and vulnerability. Moments of change.
My work often refers to my religious upbringing and academic studies of religion, psychology, and anthropology. As a child and young adult, I deeply believed in a god that I later felt abandoned by, resulting in my walking away from that belief system completely. As an adult, I am irreligiously minded, though leaving behind religion left an absence in my personal idea of purpose and spirituality. I have since become fascinated in the historical and societal role of belief structures, including their role in myth making, literature, and everyday life. It led me to a life of questioning the world around me through my art, my interactions, and my love of exploring the backcountry and the extreme unknown.