THE ART OF HELEN FARRELL

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Helen H. Farrell is a recent returnee to the field of art. She has lived all over the country, but currently resides in eastern Idaho where she is enjoying the exploration of various nooks and crannies at the edge of the visual arts. She was born in Worcester, MA and studied art for several years in her teens. However, she took a 50 plus year detour through science before returning to art. Helen studied Physics and Chemistry at the UMASS, and earned a PhD in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley. She has almost fifty years of fundamental research experience in the physical sciences and published widely, with over a hundred peer reviewed articles in major scientific journals. She still keeps her scientific hand in via collaboration with the Nanoparticle Group at SUNY Buffalo. It should be noted that Helen is unbothered by the pop-separation of the mind into “right-brain” and “left-brain” and feels that the creative act is the same whether it is in the scientific or the artistic realm.

Over the last three years, her life-long love of art has led her to become active again, partially through interactions at The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho where she currently volunteers. The techniques that she is exploring range from oil and watercolor painting to digitally manipulated images where she recently has spent most of her time. Her work has been shown at both the Willard Art Center and the Museum of Eastern Idaho in Idaho Falls. She has also had pieces shown in the Rotunda Exhibit in Boise, ID, and at the WaterWorks Art Museum in Miles City, MT. With Stacy Beazer-Rogers, she has exhibited works at the Eli Oboler Library at Idaho State University in Pocatello, the Post Register Gallery in Idaho Falls, and even at the Elevated Grounds Coffee House in Wilson, WY. While drawing on the past, she has an eye on the future and is interested in what constitutes good art in the beginning of the Twenty First century. While Helen doesn’t claim to have the answer to this question, she is enthusiastically enjoying of the process of exploring this issue.

“Evening Swirl” (Pacific Series): Several years ago, I spent some time in the Santa Barbara, CA region where I saw many stunning sunsets over the Pacific. This series is the result of those experiences.

“Sun Apple – 1: In an 1899 poem, William Butler Yeats refers to “The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun.” It is a poem of transformation and even transfiguration. I have used this inspiration here, with a bow to mid Twentieth Century artist Joseph Albers work, to create a series of chromatically evolving squares.