Nantucket Folk Art Show

I am packing the van and heading to Nantucket for the Folk Art and Artisans Show from July 19th through the 21st.  It is held at Bartlett's Farm on the beautiful island of Nantucket. Come up and take the ferry from Hyannis and see all the wonderful art and artisan work on display and help benefit the Small Friends School on Nantucket.   The show is open from 9:30 to 6 on Friday and Saturday and 9:30 to 3 on Sunday.  There is a special preview party on Thursday evening from 6 to 9 with more expensive tickets that benefit the school   For more about the show you can contact info@nantucketlooms.com

I have been painting plenty of whales and whaling paintings.  Come and join the fun.

Early American Folk Art boxes by Kristin Helberg

Common Ground On The Hill

Vinegar Grained box by Kristin Helberg

Come and take my class on vinegar graining at the 19th annual Common Ground on the Hill at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.

I will be teaching during Week I from July 1st through the 5th.   My class is every morning from 9 to 11:45.  During the week you will learn formulas for the vinegar paint and technique.  By Friday you will have completed a small chest and a faux marble mirror to take home with you.  You will also be armed with the knowledge to take on a bigger piece of furntiure when you get back home.

I only take 8 students so that I can give you personal attention as you learn this skill. Look for Vinegar Graining on Wooden Boxes in the first week of classes.

Common Ground is a Chataqua experience where you can take music, dance and art classes and attend talks and lectures as well.   Great for the entire family with classes avaiilable for children.  Come live on campus for a week and learn some new skills this summer.

www.CommonGroundOnTheHill.org  to register online or have them mail you a catalogue.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival 2013

Kristin Helberg and her American Folk Art

I was lucky enough to be juried into the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and I was on a waiting list for a booth.   I just found out that there was a cancellation and I am in the show this year.  I am thrilled to be included in this wonderful event. It is being held May 4th and May 5th at the Howard County Fair Grounds.

If you have never attended  the festival, you are in for a real treat.  Hundreds of vendors are selling hand dyed and woven items, yarn and high quality arts and crafts.  Live music, food venders and sheep dog trials add to the great experience.

Please come and find me in the Main Exhibit Building in section B32.  Go to their website for full information.  You can find out directions and a listing of all the events and vendors at the festival.  I hope to see you all there.   www.sheepandwool.org

Standing With Hope in Ghana

Kraig Helberg, an American prosthetist, with patient in Ghana  

My brother, Kraig Helberg, is a prosthetist, making arms and legs for folks who have lost theirs.   Kraig donates his vacation time and travels with Standing With Hope to Ghana where they have been establishing a clinic.

Kraig not only fits patients with high quality limbs but he trains local prosthetist technicians who live in Ghana so that they can learn new techniques and procedures.  He also helps with the donation of artificial limbs and materials here in the United States for use in Ghana.

On May 5, 2013, Standing With Hope will return to Ghana where Kraig will once again be working with patients and helping to establish a telemedicine clinic with the aid of the Ghana Health Services.

Their goal is to create a prosthetic infrastructure that will be sustainable in Ghana.  Once this is completed, Kraig and other volunteers will be able to provide ongoing training and patient evaluation for the Ghana staff on a daily basis.

I am inviting you to visit www.standingwithhope.com  and read more about their wonderful projects.  Standing With Hope is asking for cash donations as well as the donation of artificial limbs that are no longer being used.   All donations are 100% tax deductible .   Thank your for your help.

Ndebele Mural Project at Harlem Park School

Ndebele Village Mural created by Harlem Park Students

I spent the month of February at Harlem Park Elementary and Middle school in Baltimore, Maryland working with the 6th, 7th and 8th grade students creating a mural that depicts a village in South Africa where the men build the houses and the women paint them.

For ten years I have joined the wonderful Harlem Park art teacher Morag Bradford, working with her older students on a mural and creating projects for the younger grades that correspond to the world culture that we are studying.  The first grade created collar necklaces of colored paper using Ndebele designs and we staged a fashion show to South African music so the students could display their creations.

Collar Necklaces using Ndebele Designs

We created paper models of the Ndebele houses, working with the fourth grade students.

Paper model of an Ndebele house by 4th grade student

After reading Maya Angelou's book, My Painted House and my Favorite Chicken, which tells the story of an Ndebele village, the third grade created their own favorite chickens from colorful construction paper.

My Favorite Chicken portrait by 3rd grade student

The projecct was funded jointly by Harlem Park School and the Maryland State Arts Council as a project with their artist in residence program.

CHEVY CHASE WOMEN'S CLUB ARTISAN SHOW

Vinegar-grained boxes and Fraktur paintings by Kristin Helberg

The  Women's Club of Chevy Chase, Maryland will be hosing an Artisan Show featuring hand crafted items and specialty foods on Saturday, March 2 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The Club is located at 7931 Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland directly across from the Chevy Chase Country Club.  There is plenty of free parking behind the Women's Club building.

I will be showing a large assortment of painted and vinegar- grained boxes and some small painted furniture and chests.   Come and join us.

For more information call the club at (310) 652-8480.

Lincoln

Lincoln c Kristin Helberg 2012 Lincoln portrait with Early American Vinegar Grained frame by Kristin Helberg

When I was a little girl growing up in Pennsylvania, my father attended a special ball in Gettysburg dressed as Abraham Lincoln.  My mother attended as his wife Mary Todd.  The year was 1965 and it was a Centenial Ball of the Civil war.

Since my father was 6'5" with dark hair and eyes and often mistaken for the actor Gregory Peck, it was an easy transition for him to add a theatrical beard and a dark suit and top hat.  Photos were posted in  all the local papers of my parents in their Civil war finery dancing the night away.  We were so proud of them.

My parents made history come alive for us with reenactment celebrations in Gettysburg and many trips to the wonderful museums in Washington, DC.

My love of history has stayed with me in my artwork .   My early American vinegar grained boxes are featured in the gift shop of the National Archives Museum in Washington DC as well as the Lincoln portrait in archival giclee prints on canvas.

If only my parents were still alive to see what they inspired.

School Mural at Resurrection St. Paul in Ellicott City

The fourth grade paints characters from children's books

 For the last three weeks I have been working with the entire fourth grade at the Resurrection St. Paul School in Ellicott City, Maryland where we have been creating a three panel mural that will be installed outside the new library at the school.  The project has been jointly funded by the Maryland State Arts Council and the school.

The mural depicts a fantasy world that is peopled by characters from beloved children's books.  It is a joy to be creating a project at a school that understands the importance of art in the school curriculum.

Grandma Moses Painting on Kilimanjaro

Grandma Moses c Kristin Helberg 1996 National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution, Washington,DC  

My friend Rick Sause reached the summit of Kilimanjaro at dawn on September 20, 2012.  He is shown here next to his guide who is holding a poster of my portrait of Grandma Moses.  He carried it all the way to the top in his backpack.

Rick's camera froze due to the temperatures, so a fellow trekker, Andy McCarron made the photo.  The painting was acuired by The National Portrait Gallery in 2011 and it has been on display for the last year in a show that will come down at the end of October.  If you want to see her in person, you will need to get to Washington, DC.  Who knows where she will go next?

Kristin Helberg at Waterford Festival

Grained boxes and fraktur by Kristin Helberg  

If you have never attended the Waterford Festival in Waterford Virginia, you are in for a wonderful surprize.   This year the Festival is celebrating the 69th year.   The entire town of Waterford is a historic landmark village and for the three days of the crafts exhibit and home tour on October 5,6 and 7th, the townspeople park all their cars out of the village and it is open to foot traffic only.

The 155 artisans who are selling their 18th and 19th century wares will be demonstrating their artform in period costume, while music and food vendors add to the ambience.

Come and visit my booth in the old Schoohouse builidng on the hill and learn something about Early American Vinegar Graining.  The festival is from 10 to 5 each day and there is an entrance fee.   www.waterfordfoundation.org

Obama painting by Kristin Helberg

High Hopes c Kristin Helberg 2009

I created this painting in the summer of 2009 and I took it to Martha's Vineyard that August to put in the art show at the Martha's Vineyard Fair.   I was visiting with my sister Kandace who lives on the island.  Her grandchildren Andre and Nya were there as well and they helped me create a video to put on YouTube.   You can enjoy it at:  http://tinyurl.com/Obama-painting-by-Helberg 

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe  c Kristin Helberg 2012

This past February,  I decided that I wanted to read everything that I could about Edgar Allan Poe and then attempted to create a portrait worthy of this creative genius.    It is believed that like many other artists with inspired vision, such as Vincent Van Gogh, that Poe suffered from right temporal lobe seizure which heightened his creative sensibilities.  Unfortunately any amount of alcohol was not a good mix with this chronic condition.

No one truly knows what happened on Poe's stopover in Baltimore on his way to New York, but he was found stripped of his normal elegant clothes, wearing rough working man's apparel and raving mad in a bar in the Fells Point area of the city.   Many accounts of the incident believe that Poe had been drugged and perhaps used in a political voting fraud scheme.   He died in a Baltimore hospital on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40.

His arch rival Rufis Griswold seized the opportunity to write both a libelous obit and memoir of Edgar Allan Poe accusing him of being a drunken, womanizing madman.

Poe will always be recognized as one our most original American writers and the creator of a new genre of writing known as the detective story.  Check out this website to find out more about Poe.  www.poemuseum.org

Mary's Center in Washington DC

I had the great honor of creating a 3' x 5' commissioned painting for the lobby of the new Mary's Center, that opened in May of 2011 at  3912 Georgia Ave. NW, Washington,DC.   My concept for the large canvas was to create a scene that reminds us that we are indeed one big human family, by using the image of a large tree, that unites the figures.  I included many nationalities as well as a diverse depiction of ages of men, women and children.

The original Mary's Center was started in a basement in 1988 by Maria Gomez who was working as a nurse at the District of Columbia's Department of Health.   Maria witnessed the large increase in the Latin American immigrants coming to the US to escape war, poverty and death.   Many of her female patients had been raped and arrived in the United States without  prenatal care.  With funding from the DC Mayor's office on Latino Affairs and the DC Department of Health, she started her first basement clinic.

Over the years, Maria who is currently the President and CEO of Mary's Center, gradually moved from the basement clinic to larger facilities  to provide help to a wider population of the uninsured in Washington, DC.  First lady, Michelle Obama, honored Maria Gomez, by making her first DC community visit as the new first lady to Maria's clinic in 2009. Now the new Georgia Avenue center is a Federally qualified Health Center that provides health, social and education to the under-insured and uninsured population of metropolitan Washington.

Visit their website at www.mary'scenter.org for information about donations or volunteer opportunities.

A Visit to Grandma Moses

A few days ago, my friend Morag and her darling daughter Lily, went to the National Portrait Gallery to see my portrait of Grandma Moses that is currently on display in their exhibition of recent acquistions.  They sent me this great photo of Lily who is a big art fan.   My adoring public, sigh.......does it get any better than this?  

Grandma Moses portrait on display at National Portrait Gallery

 

 

In May of 2011, my portrait of Grandma Moses was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian as part of their permanent collection.   It is currently on display there at the museum in Washington with other recent acquisitions and the show will be up until the end of October 2012.

I was born in upstate New York and my family moved away.  But on frequent visits to visit my grandparents, my mother would drive us by the area in Hoosick Falls, NY where Grandma Moses's farm was located with the hopes that we would catch a glimpse of her.   We never did, but I admired her greatly.    In 1996, I made the portrait of Grandma Moses, working with photographs of her painting in her kitchen studio.   I made sure to show the Maxwell coffee cans that she used to hold her paints and her little work table with the painted scenes on either end.

Maryl Robertson Moses, aka, Grandma Moses is a woman we can all admire.   She ran her farm, raised her children and did not even begin painting until she was in her 70's creating a career for herself and international acclaim.

Happy Birthday Elvis

If Elvis Presley was still alive, he would be 77 years old. Along with the usual celebration at Graceland, there are special Elvis cruises leaving Florida next week packed with hundreds of Elvis Impersonators.

This painting that I created called Bill and Elvis, is part of the permanent collection at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Enjoy!

J. Edgar Hoover

Clint Eastwood is a film director who has created some of the most interesting and thought  provoking movies in the past five years, in my estimation.   His new bio film of J. Edgar Hoover is further proof of this ability. 

I was glad to see him take on the man who held Washington political figures hostage for decades because of the knowledge he had of their private lives.   In short, Hoover had created true job security because everyone was afraid to fire him. In 2004, I made a satirical portrait of him, eluding to his rumored transvestite escapades, when he assumed his alternate personality known as "Mary".  

I felt it was pay-back time for Mr. Hoover, for all the horrible things he had done to people such as Dr. Martin Luther King and to Melvin Purvis of the FBI who had captured all the famous outlaws, including John Dillinger.  J. Edgar Hoover did not like to share the glory and he did not like all the attention Melvin Purvis was receiving for his ability to track down the criminals so he politically undermined him.

J. Edgar Hoover copyright Kristin Helberg 2004

For nearly 14 years, I was represented by a gallery in Hilton Head, SC called America Oh Yes which was owned by Joe Adams a famous collector and expert on Southern Folk Art.   Joe had also owned the  renowned Red Piano Gallery as well.  

In 2005, Joe was to appear on a TV show in South Carolina to talk about Southern Folk Art and to show some of the work of the artists he represented.  Joe took along my portrait of J. Edgar Hoover and they told him that he could not show the painting on television.   So the strong hold that Mr. Hoover had on others existed even in 2005. 

I found it interesting to poke fun at a man who lived a secret homosexual life, while cruelly attacking others for trying to do the same.   Kudos to you Clint Eastwood.

November

For the month of October, I was fortunate to be chosen for an artist -in-residency project at the Resurrection-St. Paul School in Ellicott city.  The project was jointly funded by the school and the Maryland State Arts Council.

Working with the entire fourth grade, we created a  mural which shows the state of Maryland from the western lake district, down through the Cheasapeake Bay and ending at the Atlantic Ocean.   The three panels, each measuring 4' x 7', will be installed in the front entry hallway at the school

Working on beach panel

Painting on the beach panel

  Each student drew and painted two or three images on the finished mural.  Staff and volunteers had a day when they could add their artistic touches as well.   The principal Mrs. Murphy and the Vice Principal, Mrs. Cottrell showed up on staff painting day as well as Monsignor Diezenback and Father  Matt.   The school will celebrate the mural unveiling on November 7th.

Monsignor adds to the mural

September Clinton Presidential Library

Bill and Elvis, 24" x 48" (Acrylics)

I was thrilled when President Clinton chose my painting “Bill and Elvis” to become part of the permanent collection at his Presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas in 2003. The painting was on display in the rotunda at the capital building in Little Rock as the library was finishing construction but I was unable to attend that event.   So when I was informed that my painting would be part of a special show about Elvis at the Clinton Library this past summer, I made my plans to head to Little Rock. I arrived in Little Rock on the afternoon of September lst.

My trip south was very nostalgic for me since I lived in El Dorado, Arkansas from age 4 to age 8 when my father worked for Lion Oil. We would visit Little Rock as our closest big city and memories came back to me as I walked the streets.

The library is an imposing building right on the river in downtown Little Rock. It is all glass so the light and sense of space in the building is wonderful. The permanent exhibits are user friendly and as you walk through them you can follow both Bill and Hillary Clinton from their childhood days right up to the present.

The Elvis Show

The Elvis exhibit ran from June to September 11, 2011 and contained items of Elvis’s clothing, photos, jewelry, movie posters and even a sports car that he drove in one of his movies. It also had a section featuring Elvis related artwork which was where my painting was shown.

Las Vegas Elvis