We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kim Nogueira. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kim below.

Hi Kim, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

In 2017, the tiny Caribbean island of St John that I call home was catastrophically devastated by a Cat. 5 hurricane and hit two weeks later by a Cat. 3 hurricane. Tucked away in a valley, narrowly escaping the path of a tornado, my home and studio sustained minimal damage, but 90% of the island was left decimated and almost all connection with the outside world ceased. Clean up efforts were herculean in the sweltering 95 degree sun. For the most part, people who did not leave the island at this time did manual labor wherever it was needed, and it was needed everywhere.

My jewelry business at that time was heavily dependent on the post office and the internet. I remember the moment when I realized that I had no other option than to abandon my art jewelry practice, feeling so sad that I might not ever see it again. I thought of the saying “If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it’s yours. If not, it was never meant to be.” I allowed myself to cry for 5 minutes and then left the house to clear drywall out of a friend’s house that had sustained major roof damage.

After about 3 months of daily strenuous labor, there were some rays of hope. Internet hot spots were set up in town and I was able to communicate with my clients who were expecting custom orders. They were super understanding of the situation and eventually I was able to set up my kiln and complete the orders at a villa that had a diesel generator, where I was helping to repaint the water damaged walls.

A magical synchronicity occurred and I received an email from an artist friend who had been invited to show her art in a Paris exhibition. She recommended my work to the curator, who told her that she had invited me but I had not responded. I was able to connect with the curator and make plans to participate in the show, since by this time power was due to be restored at my house and the post office had re-opened. My art jewelry practice was coming back to me!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

In 1999 I was hired as a production goldsmith at a very beautiful jewelry store on the island of St John, the tiniest of the US Virgin Islands. The owners/designers preferred to employ people with no training, so that they could educate new hires in their chosen methods of fabrication, so I was a perfect fit, with no experience whatsoever. After a few years there, I started making my own jewelry as gifts for friends and family and set up a tiny bench with a kiln for enameling at my home.

And then something happened that changed the way I thought about the making process, something that opened an emotional channel. And, I would realize later, this was also the beginning of a spiritual journey, where I would open to ideas of being a part of something more than just what I was seeing in front of my eyes. A close family member passed away. It was about a month after his passing that I completed a strange mechanical narrative pendant that represented all of my overwhelming feelings and so much more. Looking at this piece brought me to tears; I hadn’t understood that jewelry could be a repository for emotional release and healing or even ideas in general, this was huge for me. Jewelry had always been decorative in my eyes, but that changed immediately. I looked around online more closely at jewelry, doing research, and began finding work that was expressing thoughts and feelings, using all kinds of materials, and this really inspired me. I also began researching automata, a word that I had just discovered as I was making this piece, and was completely entranced with the history of these fascinating objects. I continued experimenting with movement, putting my questions and emotions and ideas into pendants that were mechanical. I loved how it made me feel to turn a crank and have something move inside; it felt like being a child again, feeling free in a place of wonder surrounded with infinite possibilities.

My art jewelry is no longer primarily mechanical, but it is highly narrative, and evokes metaphysical themes through the use of text and imagery from the historical record, using vitreous enamel and metal. I’ve had the honor to show and sell my work in exhibitions around the world and recently had a solo show at a beautiful gallery in Massachusetts.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Exploring the self through numinous and transpersonal concepts and motifs is the backbone of my art and drives my creative journey.

My enameled work is guided by research into trance states and the higher levels of consciousness that can be accessed through shamanic journeying, where the imagination is used as a device to access deeper levels of mental and emotional perception and earth-focused wisdom is received. Because of this fascination, I also became an advanced deep trance hypnosis practitioner (a pioneering form of past life regression). My art is profoundly linked to the magical inner voyage that takes place in the hypnogogic theta-level hypnosis that I facilitate, where the imagination is also used as a tool to access the higher states of awareness in the liminal realms of the mind, similar to experiencing a deeper level of daydream or reverie. A higher aspect of the self is the architect of this time-and-space-transcending uniquely individual imaginal vision quest, which is a metaphorical curative journey as well. During sessions, I communicate with this higher aspect of self (Jung’s “collective unconscious” or your “intuition”), which is a repository of on- and off-world knowledge extending back to the beginning of time and continuing forward into the future.

I’ve come to the same conclusion as Stanislav Grof: “I now firmly believe that consciousness is more than an accidental by-product of the neurophysiological and biochemical processes taking place in the human brain. I see consciousness and the human psyche as expressions and reflections of a cosmic intelligence that permeates the entire universe and all of existence. We are not just highly evolved animals with biological computers embedded inside our skulls. We are also fields of consciousness without limits, transcending time, space, matter and linear causality.”

My core mission is to weave this wisdom into my art jewelry; every moment that we are here breathing is sacred.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I received a book from someone dear to me that changed the way I think about my work in the wider context of community and the market economy. It was The Gift: How the Creative Spirit Transforms the World by Lewis Hyde, originally written in 1979. It helped me to feel comfortable staying true to my artistic “voice”, to feel good about making pieces from my heart and soul, rather than making what I thought people might like. It might seem counterintuitive, but I knew that if I stayed true to this, the sales would follow.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kimnogueira.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimnogueirastudio/

Image Credits
Kim Nogueira Sarah B Swan