Bio
Helena is a Norwegian who was born into a nomadic life which started in Spain and has taken her to eight countries and 11 cities. In the UK, she did her art foundation at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design and her BA at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, both institutes now known as University for the Creative Arts. Helena has worked in Albania for the photography department at UNICEF, worked in several galleries in London including Proud Galleries and Somerset House, worked in production at Pinewood Studios and is a trained silversmith. She has also always kept up her own personal art practice of drawing, painting and metalwork. She even once dared to do improv and survived. She is currently residing in Tokyo, Japan with her husband and child.
Artist Statement
After my child was born I had lost myself in the initiation of motherhood. Initiations generally mean that you are presented with a set of challenges that if you overcome them, you are reborn into a new role/self. I looked around for inspiration/symbolism to inspire me while trying to redefine my new self. Motherhood can be indescribably hard and there isn’t much out there in the mainstream that conveys that mothers are valuable, knowledgeable and sacred. Then I saw an image of “The Venus of Willendorf” and in a way I started remembering that mother figures used to be sacred in society. I started wondering how we got from worshiping Goddess Mother figures, women being seen to mimic the cycles of nature and life through the menstrual cycle, fertility and bringing life to earth, to being criticized for our every move and in most countries, not being given enough time to care for our children. Through my drawings/paintings, I am taking that bulbous shape of the original mother goddess figures and have created my own universal mother goddess figure. I aim to raise awareness of this ancient and sacred history that has been forgotten and challenge why it has been lost. My art is for my fellow mother who may not remember that she comes from a history of holding sacred space here on earth and has the power to shape future societies.
