Kerstin Nichols

I first read the myth Orpheus and Eurydice when I was 12. Seeing the Brazilian film, Black Orpheus that same year made the written story come alive, and marks the first time I remember being transported by a dialog between three art forms: the visual, the musical and the written. I was caught, and a span of 2500 years was made crossable.

Regardless of the medium or the individual approach we take, as artists we are the vehicles for stories like these. Whether it’s the underworld or the ground we walk on everyday we use them to transport us to the questions often central to us all.

As I work in the studio in dialogue with this myth and the other ideas that creatively challenge me, my job is simply to choose the right materials, forms and proportions so that the heartbeat between the lines continues to resonate. I happily call this state “divine confusion.”
—Kerstin Nichols