Artist. Poet. Author. Counselor. Teacher.
The Key Is in the Breastbone: A Creative Coming of Age
“Carol Ladas Gaskin’s memoir recounts the experiences of a group of hardy young souls in the 1960s who set out to live in the woods on their own terms. Its well-wrought prose is mesmerizing, exquisite, and insightful. It is a lucid window into a key era of the twentieth century, as well as a record of one woman’s journey from a painful childhood to a young womanhood in which the goal was to appease and please, moving on to an older life of personal strength, love, and creativity. The Key Is in the Breastbone is a magnificent achievement, a work of art.”
— Priscilla Long, author of On Spaces and Colors
Author: Carol Ladas Gaskin
ISBN-10 : 0981658555
ISBN-13 : 978-0981658551
Published : June 12, 2026
Reviews
“This memoir carries a rare combination of emotional honesty, artistic sensibility, and spiritual depth. Carol Ladas Gaskin invites us into the tender, complicated terrain of family, creativity, grief, love, and healing with extraordinary compassion and courage. I finished it feeling more connected to my own humanity.”
Catherine Haynes, collage artist, poet/marriage and family therapist
“Carol Ladas Gaskin, now in her eighties, has written a captivating memoir full of deep honesty and reflection. She weaves a vibrant tapestry out of the joys and challenges of her unconventional, adventurous life. Equal parts brave, sensitive, and creative, Carol is able to fine-tune her emotional experience into both personal and universal truths. The Key Is in the Breastbone is delightful, engaging, and inspiring.”
Maggie Tchir, Canadian artist
“The Key Is in the Breastbone is a raw, tender, and beautifully human memoir of healing, community, heartbreak, and self-discovery. With remarkable honesty and courage, Carol Ladas Gaskin invites readers into a transformative journey through love, loss, resilience, and renewal. It felt less like reading a memoir and more like walking beside her through becoming.”
Jen Bedrossian
Pilates instructor
“Each person needs then early on to go inside, far enough inside to water the plants, awaken the animals, become friends with the desires and sense what Machado calls “the living pulse of the spirit.”
-Robert Bly in News of the Universe
About Carol Ladas Gaskin
Carol Ladas Gaskin was a studio clay artist from 1973-1993, exhibiting and selling her work in Canada and the United States. She had the joy of attending Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina during the Fall Concentration in 1979. She later instructed Myth and Clay at the school in 1988. She became the founder and co-coordinator of the Kootenay Boundary Artisans’ Alliance in B.C Canada, a position she enjoyed from 1982-1984. Carol was also a Board member of the Crafts Association of British Columbia as well as Director of Regional Development. During the 1980s she was co-editor, co-designer, and co-distributor of the Artisan, a book of regional artists’ work for Kootenay Boundary Artisans’ Alliance (K.B.A.A).
Upon her return to the U.S. from Canada, she became an instructor in Creative Process Classes at Seward Park Art Studio from October 1990-1996 and continued with her own studio work. One of her large murals, “Pnevmatos” (paperclay) which she co-created with Peter Berry, was included in Ceramics Art and Perception Magazine, issue 18. This innovative work highlighted an article about Paperclay, p.83.
Artist Statement
“During my almost 20 years as a clay artist, I worked primarily in white stoneware, porcelain, and finally paper clay. The forms were consistently hand-built with paper-thin clay. It seems right that I would turn to paper and collage for creative expression. Over the last few years now, I made forty collages to honor and celebrate my ancestors. They are included in my recent book called Untangling the Knot, the Art of Honoring Ancestors. Collage has become a perfect medium for me now, though my creative work must be only part-time since I continue to work as a counselor and teacher.”