Helle originally studied biology at university, and after graduating worked mostly in medical research.  She went on to study horticulture, and for a time had her own business providing horticultural services – though she always had a creative streak, and during this time also studied art part-time, majoring in drawing, painting and printmaking.

 

‘It has been a slow evolution of knowledge and skills, with each field of expertise informing the other’ says Helle, by way of explaining her path from biologist to artist. ‘In the end, every thing has been underpinned by an insatiable curiosity of the natural world’.

 

Helle describes herself as an investigator of materials and form. Collecting, arranging and displaying is a large part of her process, as is the use of materials that are discarded, recycled or sustainably harvested. This provides limitations which are her rules of play.’