Juli Cady Ryan was born and raised on a farm in Northwestern Indiana, in the small town of LaPorte. Her experiences growing up with a mother, then later with her children with mental illness influenced her art greatly. A self-taught artist, Juli used her own struggles and her family’s to create whimsical paintings filled with color and hope. She wanted to be a voice for those suffering with mental illness.


Juli now resides in Cincinnati, OH, where she has lived for 26 years. She started painting using acrylics and was influenced by both Gustav Klimt’s colorful shapes and Marc Chagall’s use of color and whimsy. Recently, she has started to use materials in a nontraditional, uncontrolled, free-flowing way often mixed with unconventional materials, creating backgrounds of color and shapes.


Juli’s art has sold internationally and has been featured in several publications and exhibits nationally including exhibits in Los Alamos, NM, Springfield MO and Red Bluff, CA. Her most recent exhibit was in the Westheimer Gallery in Sharonville, OH May 3-25, 2019. She has also self-published a children’s book, The Sleep Fairy and Her Magic Sheep, a children’s bedtime story.