Helen Werner Cox

My artwork has followed me along many paths and led me to places I never imagined. I work in series, fully immersed in a theme for anywhere from two to three years. 

The feature image is a three-dimensional tunnel book stemming from observational landscape paintings—completed on location while documenting the progress of the Gerald Desmond Bridge Replacement Project. Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, the final work of the series, was painted from memory and a surreal drive through the harbor when it shut down at the beginning of COVID.

Manet, Revisited represents a four-year project collaborating with my models in the development of portraits, to give them voice. Here we explored the objectification and stereotyping of people by reversing roles in famous artworks. Manet’s Olympia afforded us an opportunity to address both sexual and racial issues. As the painting evolved, I directed my focus to the unique personalities of the models. No longer mere symbols, they are portrayed as individuals. Paradoxically, the painting is an affirmation of their sexual identities at the same time as it underscores the prevalence of sexism and racism in history and society. 

My deep emotional response to social events compelled the creation of Black Lives Matter: Entering an Era of Rebellion. I was careful not to appropriate culture while documenting this moment in history through the lens of my emotional response, as current events echoed the past. I utilized the traditional western European techniques I was trained in. The composition for this image was informed by “The Triumph of Death” by Pieter Bruegel. 

In History Repeats Itself, sepia-toned images derived from events in the 1960’s are juxtaposed with current events. COVID lockdowns forced me to use photographs for reference, raising the question: when does the photograph cease to belong to the photographer and become an element in the painting? To maintain a separation from the photographs, final works are based on preparatory drawings and prints and, whenever possible, the permission of the photographers.

After all this serious, emotionally draining work, I needed a break! It came in the form of a dollhouse left on a curb for the taking. I transformed it into a storybook house, featuring a different classic children’s book in each room. Characters and scenes are made from wood, cloth, clay, paper and paper mâché, with wire armatures. Shown here: Pinocchio and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.