Artist Statement

I see my work as a process in which inner landscape becomes mirrored on the canvas. True to my Brazilian heritage, I am drawn to deep, bold, earthy colors, sensual textures, and strong, rhythmic forms. Drawing upon mythical, archetypal dimensions of consciousness, my art connects viewers to their dreams and intuition, and to the realms of primitive, instinctual consciousness that lie beneath the surface strata of the conscious mind.

Each one of my paintings is a fusion of gesture, texture and color to rhapsodic effect. In addition to energetic brushwork there is a play of drips, pours and splashes, evocative of Abstract Expressionism. I move the painting itself as well as my brushes in the act of creation.

I’ve always loved walking in nature. At some point, I bought a digital camera. And I started looking, seeing, noticing, and perceiving nature as art: The way the interplay of light and water creates shapes, the dance of light on water, the translucent sky, the fluid, ever-shifting mystery of water itself. When I take a picture, I experience a moment of true communion with nature which, through the photograph, is transmitted to the viewer.

The photographs are then printed on giclees, a sophisticated form of printing. A giclee does not look like a photograph, but more like a painting.



                Artist Biography

Helena was born in Brazil, where she lived until the age of 25. She grew up in a family of artists—sculptors and interior designers, jewelers, photographers and painters. She studied painting at the Escola Brasil Dois Pontos, the foremost art institute of Brazil which has launched many of the country’s greatest contemporary artists, including Fajardo, Bavarelli, and Rezende.

In 1980, Helena married and moved with her American husband to Ithaca, NY, where she raised two children and continues to work in her studio. “I was warmly welcomed to Ithaca, and it’s been a pleasure to share my art with this community.”

The brilliant colors and complex textures of her work reflect the essence of the Brazilian soul. Her art fuses critical sophistication and primitive sensuality, exuberance and refinement, spontaneity and sensitivity. True to her Brazilian roots, Helena’s work reveals her profound connection with the elemental world of nature and with the mysterious depths of the unconscious.