Kristin Gaudio Endsley
Kristin Gaudio Endsley’s creative practice opens up a critical and dynamic dialogue between canvas, paint, and water. She uses spontaneous and methodical dripping techniques to compose soft-edge and mutable images with a foundation in her personal and collective consciousness. The drips break the tension on the canvas and leave their mark. By virtue of insight, Kristin liberates the pieces of the rationality behind the traces, instead relying on the synchronicity found in the in-between of rehearsal and letting go. Through water, she can sculpt motion into the canvas, capturing kinetic moments of experiences memorized in the body. Raised near the rolling shores of Chesapeake Bay, Kristin’s perspective was strongly shaped by the visual clash of industry and nature in and around the bustling American port town of Baltimore. Descended from a long line of artists and craftsmen, Kristin has a family history in highly tactile expressions of creativity. She has traveled and studied extensively in Europe, Africa, and the United States, where she honed her eye and ability. Kristin lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, with studios in Brooklyn and Washington DC.
Collect Bean: What is one of your current goals as an artist?
Kristin Gaudio Endsley: I would love to find a “home” gallery. By “home,” I mean a gallery that represents my artwork, supports my career goals and invests time in me as an artist.
Collect Bean: Where are you currently finding inspiration?
Kristin Gaudio Endsley: For a long time now, I have wanted to incorporate organic water sources into my paintings through rain, streams, oceans, and lakes. This summer, I will be working in upstate New York, and I finally plan to devote some time to this practice. I completed a few works in this series several years ago. I was painting in a barn at an artist residency in the English countryside. I would drag my canvases out in the ideal British rain and capture the most beautiful effects. I look forward to doing that again.
Collect Bean: How do you approach the balance between experimentation and consistency in your art?
Kristin Gaudio Endsley: That is an excellent question for me! As I struggle with this, I have heard many times throughout my career to find a “style of practice” and stick with it. I have to ask myself constantly what is experimentation and what is practice? What is play and what should be only seen in my studio? And what is a body of work? I have accepted that I will never be an artist who does one thing/style/type of painting. I will always experiment. The thread throughout all the work I create is that the overall feel of the art has a sense of calm and balance. To quote Lee Krasner, “I have never been able to understand the artist whose image never changes,” but I am also super impressed with that artist. I don’t understand them, but I envy them.
Collect Bean: How does where you grew up influence your work?
Kristin Gaudio Endsley: I was raised near the rolling shores of Chesapeake Bay, so my perspective was strongly shaped by the visual clash of industry and nature in and around the bustling American port town of Baltimore. I am always drawn to this idea of what is man-made and what is naturally occurring, especially when it comes to water.
Collect Bean: If you had to describe your work in only three words, what would they be?
Kristin Gaudio Endsley: Ethereal, Light, Water.
