I’m a traveler. I’m an artist. Each feeds the other in a kind of self-sustaining loop. Although from southern California I spent many family summers in Denmark and that began a lifetime of traveling. After college in New York and years on the road, (Paris, Italy, Kenya, New Orleans, Spain, Uruguay) I returned to California and now divide my time between my Mendocino studio and São Paulo, Brazil.

Sketchbook in hand, I engage the world, observing and gathering visual material. Without diminishing and enclosing what I see with a label, or trying to simplify them into an object, I strive to recognize the essence of who is before me: the bathers at the seaside, Sunday shoppers at the street market, or commuters glimpsed through the window of a passing bus.  Later, working quickly from memory, guided by impulse and emotion, and embracing imperfection, a figure emerges, surprising me with their humanity.

 

For Inquiries, please email me at kgantzelart@gmail.com