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Helen grew up in a small rural village
in the Midlands. After graduating with a first class honours degree
in Applied Arts she moved to Cumbria, then later to York with her
partner. She took with her a great love of clay that she had
acquired during her studies, and after sharing studio space with a
potter in exchange for hours spent looking after a shop, she set
herself up as an independent artist.Having a family which was
heavily involved in a broad range of arts and crafts, from painting
to dressmaking, created an expectation of some kind of artistic
future in Helen’s mind. She remembers being fascinated by the human
form during her first experience of life drawing classes while
studying for art A’ level, on a physical mechanical level, and also
in the subtleties of body language – both of which have remained
with her and still inform her artistic vision today. Helen lists a
varied range of inspirational artistic sources for her work, from
Assyrian friezes and cave art to the drawings of Klimt and the clay
maquettes of Rodin. She also owes a debt to the rocks around and up
the many mountains she has climbed, enjoying both their aesthetics
and their place in nature and history. These and many other
influences go towards creating the ideas behind her sculptures. |
