Kirsten Francis

"Myths hook and bind the mind because at the same time they set the mindfree: they explain the universe while allowinR the universe to go on being unexplained."
~ Jeanette Winterson

Kirsten Francis was born in New Hampshire in 1970 and spent her childhood in Massachusetts, Mexico City and Toronto, as well as many summers in Denmark with her mother's family. In 1992 she graduated from Tufts University in Medford, MA with a BA in Classical Humanities. After discovering printmaking at Mesa Community College in San Diego, she received a BFA in Printmaking from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 1997.

Her upbringing abroad, love for books of all kinds and an active imagination have all contributed to the imagery and the themes that she uses in her work. In Mexico, she was introduced to Aztec mythology and the narrative murals of Rivera and Orozco. There she gained an early appreciation for the power and universality of archetype and symbolism. She also spent many lunchtimes in the school library, reading. In Northern Denmark the sand dunes, ancient churchyards and wind-gnarled woodlands made the stories by Grimm and H.C. Andersen seem truly possible.

Francis combines these mythological and literary images with events from her everyday life, exploring the conflict she feels between domestic life and its responsibilities, and her wilder impulses. Her use of woodblock heightens the physicality, as well as the illustrative nature of my work. The strong graphic quality of woodblock, when combined with the expressiveness and looseness of my drawing, creates a tension and emotional intensity not found in other mediums and allows her to create intricately detailed, colorful and intensely narrative pieces.