Helena Nelson-Reed

Profile

City: Woodridge
Country: United States

Joined: Apr 2008

Some Background About My Paintings
I’m intrigued by myth, fairy tales, legends, and mysticism as well as history, cultures, and spiritual teachings. I grew up in Marin County and Napa Valley, California, but eventually made Illinois my home. I attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago, studying lettering, archetectural rendering, and catalog layout, but have no fine art training. Years later I returned to school and gradually attained my degree late in life, over many years. My Masters in Psychology focuses primarily on transcultural psychology with emphasis in family violence, gang psychology, substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder, cult and occult duo – diagnosis.

Technique and subject matter emerge from vision, life experience, dream, and an innate love of creating. I prefer natural surroundings and crave the wild beauty of lonely rocky shorelines, mountains, rivers, forests and prairie. I cherish family, close friends and my four legged and winged companions. I’m not one for social games but enjoy down – to earth – people with no pretensions, a good laugh, and meeting people from cultures and traditions different from my own.

I’m a simple person and communicate only a personal interpretation of archetypal imagery, vision, dream, and life. It flows from the heart, almost creating itself as I move into and through the painting. In many images there are hidden dimensions not readily apparent unless the viewer speaks a similar or related soul language. The fact that some images, like ourselves, have secrets and codes hidden in full view makes them all the more interesting! However, I always provide a partial explanation for every painting. The rest is up to you.

I love that beauty exists in nature for no reason at all, and in this spirit sometimes give voice to a vision or dream by painting it, simply because the act of doing so, the color, and line pleases something within. The manner by which viewers interpret my art is a reflection of that individual and the lens through which they look. To know me and who I am, look at my art.

To see more of my work, visit: www.helenanelsonreed.com and archival pages on the “Chicago Artist’s Coalition”: site: http://caconline.org/gallery.asp?artist=HelenaNelsonReed