The October Selection: 3 Artists We Love
CAT TESLA
Cat Tesla is an international contemporary abstract artist who meditates before going to the studio to paint. Tesla's paintings abstract nature or are derived from nature’s colors and textures. Born in St Louis, MO, Cat loved both art and science growing up. She obtained an undergraduate degree in Biology, followed by a Master's Degree in Human Genetics. After a 20-year career on faculty working as a genetic counselor at Emory University, she eventually traded genetics clinic for art studio. Cat's work is represented by galleries in the U.S. and U.K. She currently lives and works from her home studio in Atlanta with her art business-partner husband.
“I'm currently working on 3 different private residential commissions, plus another commission recently finished for a hospital in Texas. In the next 5 years I'd like to be known not only as a painter, but as a sculptor and author. I'd like to push the boundaries in my exploration of deconstructing nature: disassembling and reassembling nature into new nature-scape paintings, as well as in a 3-dimensional way. I've written a book that I'm beginning to edit about "a year in the life" of a working artist, which I hope will be inspirational for other creatives. This summer I began teaching other artists in online workshops and plan to develop additional courses to teach other artists the techniques and knowledge I wish I had known about when I first started 23 years ago. To me, creating is the most life-affirming thing to do.”
AIMÉE JOARISTI
Aimée Joaristi, born in Cuba, is a multidisciplinary artist who explores themes related to unconsciousness, playful transgression, Cuban migration, and female vindication in her recent works. From painting and installation to performance and video art, multiple media are conceived as one more channel of communication for those messages that are born from intuition and self-exploration.
Among its outstanding exhibitions are the 13th Biennial of Havana 2019, the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Mantova 2017, the Biennial of Guayaquil 2016, the 5th International Triennial of Fiber and Textile Art of Riga 2015, Matadero Madrid, Museo C.A.V. La Neomudéjar Spain, Museum City of Art Zapadores Spain, PHOTO Spain, ARCO Madrid, ART Lima Peru, among others. Her works are in private collections in Chile, France, Mexico, Madrid and other important public collections, among which are the Wifredo Lam Museum in Cuba, the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Latvia and the C.A.V La Neomudéjar Museum in Spain.
“I see myself in a state of continuous presence to be able to create and flow. Even trying I cannot project myself further than an intentional free brushstroke... I am planing a few shows at the time, one in Havana where I was born, one in Madrid where I grew up and one in Costa Rica where I live. I am also working on my second book. I truly could not plan for five years. It’s not part of my goals to plan ahead so far.“
KRISTIN GAUDIO ENDSLEY
Kristin Gaudio Endsley is an abstract painter and ceramicist who has journeyed around the world polishing her eye and ability to create visual textures with a rich, adventurous color palette and expressive techniques. 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. As a result of this interest, in addition to her fine arts work, Kristin obtained her Bachelor of Science in Fashion Design and Illustration at Virginia Tech University. She has traveled and studied extensively with residencies in Europe, Africa, and Australia. She has shown her abstract paintings and ceramics consistently within the UK and the US. Kristin currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and Washington, DC.
“Like many artists, I struggled at first to create when Covid shut us down, but when I finally began to work I completely changed directions. In my new series, I am breaking away from the controlled nature of geometric shapes. I am opening up to a critical dynamic of canvas, paint, and water; using spontaneous yet methodical dripping techniques to compose soft-edge and mutable images with a foundation in both my personal and the collective consciousness. The drips break the tension on the canvas and leave their mark. Like an articulation of my thoughts, memories unfold onto the canvas, soaked. The canvas themselves, primed and unprimed, function as symbolic analogies of our human vulnerability and readiness to be touched, as well as our durability and resilience we learn with time. By the virtue of insight, I liberate the pieces of the rationality behind the traces, instead relying on the synchronicity found in the in-between of rehearsal and letting go. And through water, I was able to sculpt motion into the canvas, capturing kinetic moments of experiences memorized in the body. Unlocking those moments of longing, loving, haunting, and epiphany.
I hope to continue down this road, but I would like to take it a step further by allowing organic forms of water to have a larger roll within the painting. Hopefully obtained by placing my pieces in the rain or sea, giving them up nature. The dream is to find a location that will let me work in that capacity. A home by the ocean would be ideal! I’ve dipped my toe into this work before, and I look forward to creating a larger series. Additionally, I plan to tie in my ceramic work as well. To finally have those two separate practices be represented in one cohesive series.”
