Helen Rogers

{Retail Value $120}

Stuffie #22, 2020

Ceramic Sculpture with Wood Base

10 x 8 x 4 inches

Courtesy of the artist

www.BlueEyeBandit.com

I think, in an earlier life, I was an alchemist. I say this, because from as early as I can remember, I have been trying to make one thing into another. When I was a child, mud pies became brownies. My backyard was a far off jungle to be explored. The night sky was the view from my room in a space station. I was a bold solo adventurer on a quest, sleeping under the stars every night. Of course, mud never became brownies, my backyard was situated in a suburban neighborhood in NY, the night sky was often obscured by street lights, and even when my family went camping, we used a tent. But that never stopped me from escaping into my imagination. Then or now. Through grammar and high school, and later in college, I had a flirtatious love affair with art. I never settled on a single medium for long. I took away as much as I needed to learn to continue on my own, and inferred the rest. In graduate school, I abandoned art to pursue a career in chemistry--only to discover that at the heart of scientific discovery is a creative artist. My career has included working in a laboratory, teaching, chasing down diseases around the globe and reviewing scientific research. But I always come back to art and my passion for making things. The sculptural work I enjoy creating the most are the characters that populate stories inspired by trips to Georgia's Golden Isles (Cumberland and Ossabaw Islands) and the mountains of North Georgia where I now live. I use a combination of sculptural media, found materials and techniques to achieve unique works of art. Helen lives in Rabun Gap, GA with her patient husband, an out-of-control dog, and two agitated cats