Helene has been doing sculpture for over 40 years, and has been in the arts
since 1974. She started as a two dimensional artist graduating from University
of Colorado in Boulder with her Masters of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. She
showed her her work extensively in the Colorado and the Denver area in the 1970’s
and became known for her “sunny surrealism”. This experience laid the foundation
for her sculpture which she began doing when she moved to Connecticut in the early
1980’s. She continued to study and learn her craft over the years to the present,
studying with many famous figurative sculptors, such as Stanley Bleifeld, Elizabeth
Gordon Chandler, and Laci De Gerenday, all fellows of the National Sculpture Society.
In her words:
“As I create the work I do today I can understand more what these influences have
been over the years. My love of drawing has given me the ability to express many
complex scenes using people and architectural settings, as well as giving me an ability
to do sculptural base relief. I do believe that drawing is the foundation of my work, and
drawing into the clay while building my forms is the basis of my sculpture. As a sculptor
I am an observer of people, groups and individual, their relationship to one another, the
environments they find themselves in, our connectedness to the earth and to one
another, or our isolation. The ebb and flow of life is what interests me and leads me to
my subject matter - and it is limitless! Movement, energy and emotion are all qualities I
find important to express in my work. Terracotta clay is my medium of choice although I
work and cast in many different material form wax, to plaster, to Bronze. It is important
to know why I chose this clay for my artistic expression. First, it allows me a great deal
of freedom to be inventive and because I use no armature inside the clay, it allows me
to change direction whenever I feel it is necessary to do so. The clay is malleable - so
easy to move, to carve, erase or cut, or change in numerous ways; it seems to have a
living quality to it which gives the sculptor an endless variety of surfaces dependent on
the moisture content and desired affect. This is what I most like about the clay, and like
a painter with his brushes and oils - I use my tools like brush strokes in the clay. When
a piece is fired and paintined it glows with the warmth of the earth itself.”
Helene has won many national awards for her sculpture, and has shown extensively
both regionally and nationally. She has studied with nationally known artists both in
Connecticut and in Italy. She also studied sculpture at the Lyme Academy and College
of Fine Art, in Old Lyme, CT. with both Elizabeth Gordon Chandler, Laci De Gerenday
and Don Gale. Helene was on the sculpture faculty of the Lyme Academy an College of
Fine Art from 2000-2005. She is now working in her own studio located at 1 West Main
Street in the charming town of Chester, Connecticut.
