Abby Helms

Every journey has a starting point, but every starting point has a story behind it. My identity as a painter is not vividly my own or singular, but woven of the many threads of my

inheritance and my family’s story. I am legally and culturally an American, but I also live by the influences of my heritage . . . . I cannot discern when the Indian begins and the Ecuadorian ends and how all of the puzzle pieces fit to create me, but I am not one image, one form.

I’ve come to discover that I naturally gravitate toward painting . . . memories and history. I’m driven to display the auras and presence of my family in my pieces. For this reason, my work is an ode to my grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, and sisters. From my use of figurative imagery, to deploying a bright colorful palette, I have woven my way through the discovery of who I am as a female artist, and how I carry my family’s history forward. 

More important than drawing a static meaning from a piece, or what the piece says about me, is that my work triggers the viewer’s internal reflection. My work is personal and is a layer of my history. My hope is for the viewers to reveal their own truth as they tap into my process of nostalgic exploration.