Dawn Endean
Seattle, WA
Dawn Endean is a printmaker and painter whose work focuses on human and animal figures, and explores feelings of both tenderness and unease.
MessageDawn Endean has been making art for over 50 years. She has exhibited at the Turner Print Museum in Sacramento, CA; The Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, WA and Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, WA. In addition, she has shown at numerous galleries nationally and internationally including in Sweden at Detroit Stockholm Gallery; at Seattle's Davidson Galleries; Shift Gallery; Jacob Lawrence Gallery; and the Columbia City Gallery. Other regional venues include the Schack Art Center in Edmonds; The Island Gallery on Bainbridge Island; The Northwind Arts Center in Port Townsend and Mighty Tieton in Tieton Washington; Gallery 25 in Fresno, CA and One Plus One Gallery in Helena Montana.
Her work is represented in collections throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as in New York, Stockholm, Florence and in the Bridwell Art Library at the University of Louisville.
Endean studied printmaking at Northern Illinois University, at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, and in San Miguel Allende and Oaxaca Mexico. She currently teaches Printmaking at her Seattle studio as well as at various regional arts venues.
Statement
I am a visual artist working primarily in the disciplines of printmaking and painting. I have always been interested in folktales and myths, particularly those dealing with duality and transformation. I am also drawn to worn objects that show evidence of their history: books and photos, vintage toys and clothes, diaries and letters. The ways that those materials are altered by time and touch, as well as the untold stories they contain, give a bittersweet sense of both loss and connection. My sensibility can be a bit dark, but at the same time rather playful as well.
My process typically begins with a visual cue; something I observe that I connect with on an emotional level; usually an old family photo or an image of an animal. I seek a partnering of image and medium that amplifies the emotional response. I alternately build and obliterate the surface with printed, drawn and painted elements; letting the images come together over many layers of material.
I view my materials as collaborators and feel a piece is successful when it shows me something new.
All images copyright Dawn Endean 2025
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