A. S. Helwig

A. S. Helwig was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. From an early age she drew and painted.  In fact, she has painted in acrylics since she was 14 years old in the coulee hills close to her family home.  Helwig took a two year commercial art program at the Medicine Hat College and then a Bachelor of Education Degree (with Distinction) from the University of Lethbridge.  Looking for adventure Helwig moved to Fox Lake, a small remote Indian village in Northern Alberta.  There she taught English and art while maintaining a studio in her home. 

                Helwig presently resides in Calgary.  She remains an art educator, presently teaching part time at a private school and for the City of Calgary at the Wildflower Art Center.  She also gives art workshops to adult groups.  Helwig attended the Banff Center of Arts in a self directed residency in 2008 and 2005.  Her work is represented by Mountain Galleries in Jasper, Banff and Whistler, Swirl Gallery in Calgary and Alicat Galleries in Bragg Creek. 

“I am painting the landscape that is familiar to me,” says Helwig.  “The imagery that I have been working with has become spiritual and dreamlike.  The images are quick glances we have of the landscape as we move through it.”

 Themes of alienation, awe, personal epiphanies and prayerfulness emerge.  The fleeting moment transcends itself to reveal that feeling, that truth, which we intuitively understand but find difficult to articulate.  These are visual poems which insinuate the eternal into our understanding of the immediate.