ARTIST BIO

Nikole Hester is a visual artist actively engaged in the design of interior environments. For Nikole, design is an intimate practice of exploration and collaboration. With a keen eye for opportunity, her design work is enlivened by the unexpected use of raw materials blended with found and bespoke furniture, objects, and art—a balance of restraint and simplicity. While pursing her design degree, she began experimenting with watercolor as a medium for communicating ideas during the design process.

As a native West Texan, Nikole finds solace and inspiration across the vast horizon line between earth and sky. Her works on canvas are dynamic conversations of the controlled and the uncontrollable, and a search for balance in the space between. Nikole’s perspective for art and design was further shaped by the lush textures of the Pacific Northwest where she worked at an AD100 firm with a focus on high-end residential design for clients around the world. There, her mentors encouraged the continuation of her fine art practice alongside her work in interior architecture; today, she creates commissioned paintings for private collectors and exhibits work from her studio art practice.

Her combined passion for interiors and painting led to Nikole’s current adventure, the founding of Studio West: an evolving space where she devotes time to both art and design.