Grandma Moses c Kristin Helberg 1996, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian

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.

I do artist in residency projects here in public schools in Maryland that are funded by the Maryland State Arts Council.   I just completed a month long project at Harlem Park Elementary/Middle school here in Baltimore City where I worked with art teacher Morag Bradford and her students.   The older students created a three panel folding screen depicting Ancient China.  We studied old Chinese prints and illustrations and each child drew and painted an image on the screen.

The younger children made paper Chinese Dragon puppets, portraits of Pandas, kites and working models of the abacus, the ancient Chinese calculator.  The folding screen and other art will be on display at the Walters Art Museum here in Baltimore on April 28th with a party to celebrate the children’s accomplishment.

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!

 The sun is pouring in through my windows.  It is both a new day and a new year.  Everyone likes to exault you with wishes for good fortune and success in the New Year.   But I think that success is always relative and to be content, you must always return to that truth.   I admire friends who have decided to be content with the life that they have.   I wish that for you. 

The National Archives Museum sells my vinegar grained boxes and framed fraktur in their gift shop at the Museum location in Washington, DC at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Fraktur are illustrated documents recording weddings, baptism and birth.  My fraktur art is derivitive of the Pennsylvania Dutch style.

This year the museum is trying an American Artisans Fair to honor and promote a group of American Artisans and they will be featuring my boxes and fraktur in the show as well as 6 painted and grained chairs that I delivered to the Museum yesterday.   The chairs are all antique some of them dating back to 1880 and I have added vinegar graining and Early American motifs such as the Tree of Life image seen in quilts.

The fair will have several private showings for members and the board of directors but it will be open to the public on Friday December 2 and Tuesday December 6 from 10 am to 5 pm.   I hope to see you there.   The fair is being held at the museum at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.  Not only will they have housewares but they will be offering jewelry and apparel as well.

As you are gathering things for Thanksgiving dinner this week, instead of loading things in your car in cardboard boxes, why don’t you consider trying a “retro” tip from our grandparents and go get yourself some nice hand- crafted baskets. 

My friend George Frazier sells a wonderful assortment of hand-made baskets at his booth in the Downtown Farmers Market every Sunday morning here in Baltimore.   He carries the famous Peterboro baskets which have been produced here in the United States since before the Civil War, river grass baskets made by a woman’s free trade cooperative in Ghana and baskets made in Lancaster by an Amish craftsman.   

Greorge Frazier's Basket Booth

 If you don’t live here in Baltimore, you visit George at his website at www.baskits.net   He will gladly ship to you.   Have a lovely holiday gathering. 

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, the star of the FBI who expunged all the famous outlaws, including John Dillinger.  

J. Edgar Hoover c Kristin Helberg 2004

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

Painting on the beach panel

The Monsignor adds to the mural

October is one of my favorite months.  The clear skies and bright sunshine make the brightly colored changing leaves even more intense.

 This October has found me very busy with updating my website and working on a three panel mural at Resurrection St. Paul Catholic School in Ellitcott City, Maryland.   Our topic for the mural is a view of Maryland from the  mountains to the ocean.  I am working with the entire fourth grade.  Each child gets to draw and paint images on the mural.  I will post photos of the progress later this month.

I am also involved with the Fells Point Farmers Market on Saturday mornings from 7:30 to noon here in Baltimore.   My booth features examples of my painted and grained furntiure and boxes.  This little butterfly came to visit me this past weekend, drawn to the bright colors.    I will be there on the 29th of October as well.

A butterfly at the Fells Point Farmer's Market