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Alison Helm's
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Price Range: $1,000 - $7,500
Bio
Ms Helm, born in 1956 in Greensville, Mississippi holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Cleveland Institute of Art. She is currently a professor of art and has been the coordinator of Sculpture in the Division of Art at West Virginia University College of Creative Arts since 1983. She is currently a professor of art, coordinator of sculpture and graduate advisor at West Virginia University.
Style
My work reflects a balance between the tensions of culture and nature. My personal creative process illustrates the distilling, filtering and transforming that each person experiences reconciling these two forces.
My works document life's experiences and observations and are wordless carriers of spirit and emotion. The combinations of forms work in unity to reflect my concept of life and hope. Because my work is a reflection of a search for meaning, I have taken an intuitive and spontaneous approach to my work.
Artist Statement
Technology has a profound influence on the physical possibilities of sculpture. I continually value the handmade object, with commitment, concentration, and sensitivity with construction being the principle mode of assemblage. Mixed media reflects this open-ended potential of combing media. By using such varied materials as composites and other substances used in industry, I have made use of the multiple capabilities of the three-dimensional medium.
I also use found objects, such as rocks or gems which, combined with other elements create a richness in surface and in meaning. This also enhances the story- telling aspect that each work possesses. The viewer's eye is led into a path or maze that asks for new interpretations to be made along the way.
Awards
From West Virginia University, she received the Outstanding Research Award for Creative Activity in 2001 and she was nominated for the Claude Worthington Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award.
She has completed various sculpture commissions including “Splendor of the Seas” for the deck of one of the largest cruise ships in the world owned by Caribbean Cruise Lines. Her work is represented in numerous private and public collections.
Ms Helm has received two NEA Grants for Underserved area artists from the Cultural Center in Charleston, WV.
Exhibitions
Alison Helm has exhibited her work extensively at many galleries, museums and sculpture parks throughout the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and Mexico.
Exhibitions include the Cultural Center in Charleston, WV, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, and the Huntington Museum, Charleston, WV.
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