START WITH OLDEST

VISUAL ART

"Back of My Hand"
2024-11-14


"Heart at My Shoulder"
2024-11-12


"Choosing Life"
2024-11-01


"I Love You"
2024-10-31


"I Stand Alone"
2024-10-25


"Broken"
2024-10-22


"Lonely Soul"
2024-10-17


"Lonely Wanderer"
2024-10-16


"This Is My Heart"
2024-10-13


"Reaching"
2024-10-12


"Weeping"
2024-10-11


"The Body Is Here 2"
2024-10-10


"Still Blue"
2024-10-09


"My Hand"
2024-10-09


"Take My Hand"     SOLD
2024-09-21

"Remover of Difficulties"     SOLD
2024-09-18

"Malvin and Me"
2024-09-09
Featured in the Chicago Baha'i Assembly's 182 B.E. Annual Report


"The Created"
2024-07-24

"Revolution Within"
2024-06-25

"Bi-Polar Mind"
2024-06-24


Now I Understand
2024-06-18

"Back Down?"
2024-06-12

"Warrior 1"
2024-06-11
(See accompanying poem)

"You Matter"      SOLD
2024-06-10

"The Path"
2024-06-06

"Why?"
2024-06-05

"End of the Rainbow"
2024-06-04

"The Phoenix"
2024-06-03


Nephew's Ninth     SOLD
2024-06-02


"Found"     SOLD
2024-05-29


"Constellations Change"
2024-05-28


"Out of This Cage"
2024-05-27


"My Friend, The Giving Tree"
2024-05-27
(See accompanying poem)

"The Body Is Here 1"
2024-05-23

"Eclipse Chasing"
2024-05-21
(See related 2-part report)

"Not My Conditions"
2023-12-08

"Messenger of Joy"
2023-11-22

"Whisper"
2023-04-27

"If Love Were Enough"
2023-01-07

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START WITH OLDEST

VERBAL ART

It's the Midnight Hour – Where Are You? (2024-05-25)
It's the midnight hour,
Do you know where your heart is at?
Off in some back ally
Somewhere breaking
Leaving a stream
Of blood leaking
Across the asphalt.
See these tears?
This bitter disillusionment
Called Life not going my way?
A swift kick in the ass
And I'm face down
Spread eagle on the ground
Wondering where the sky is at.
It's the midnight hour,
Do you know where your consciousness is at?
Dwelling on all the should-a, could-a, would-a
Of a night in the past
I just can't seem to fucking change.
I want to rip out my hair
In bitter despair.
It's the midnight hour,
Do you know where your head is at?
It's in a demented dark version of Disneyland
For people who cannot let go of past mistakes
Whose very minds have become torture chambers
Featuring a private hell and an assortment
Of devices for arousing pain.
Like "How the hell could I make that mistake?"
I wrap my hair round and round in my fists
Before pulling very hard
In my anguish.
It's the midnight hour,
Do you know where your dreams are at?
Broken and scattered at my feet.
Stomped on. Stepped over. Cracked. Discarded. Disregarded. Ignored.
Blowing away in the wind as bits of dust and shit.
It's the midnight hour,
What else is there to say?

These empty meaningless words.
That spill across this blank page.
I sit here and weep at the unexpected blow,
Wondering what the fuck happened.
Where did the wind go after the frightening punch to the gut?
One minute I was standing.
Now I'm on my knees crawling, weeping, beseeching the invisible God
For a release from the madness that is me.

MY FRIEND, THE GIVING TREE (2024-01-06)
An Elegy in Memory of David Howard Luster (1960 - 2023)
(See accompanying picture)
I don't know how to be selfless.
I don't how to be a giver.
To lay down my life for another.
To give of me, until all of me is an empty
Core full of my love for you.
To flow with my arms open.
To let go of all restraint.
Of what I think is mine, all mine.

But you my friend
Gave of yourself to the very end.
To the ends of the earth.
When hope itself was the thin whisper
Of a branch in the wind.
Like the nightingale in a storybook from my childhood,
Who gave all its heart's blood and song to turn the white rose red
For true love's sake; but love did not win out.
This world is such an unfair place
Where broken dreams and hardships seem to be the norm
And struggles are endless.
But there you were,
Weathering the storm.
Always thinking of others first before yourself.
The Giving Tree.
You gave until the end.
Even though it hurt.
To your last dying breath.
I hope at last
You can finally rest
And be at peace.
My friend, the Giving Tree.
(Also see Eulogy in Abiding Blog)

BLOODY NEW YEAR (2024-01-01)
We dance in the circling lights
As the confetti falls
As the sparkling glasses are raised high
As the song Auld Lang Syne
Plays
Thank God, we made it.
My friend cried out.
Her arms stretched out in the shadows
Wistful tears in her eyes
Goodbye 2023!
Yet tears of joy stream down her face
Hello to 2024!

Outside the street is lined with police cars.
Foster Avenue has been shut down between Pauline and Ashland.
I didn't hear the gunshots earlier
over the loud dance music in the hall.
Didn't hear the screech of wheels
the sound of road rage unleashed.
A man shot in the face
On this New Year's Eve.
And now here we are celebrating life
As a man lies in a hospital wing
Fighting for his.
Hello 2024.
At least for some of us anyway.

IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS (2023-01-02)
Sitting in the nursing home
With my husband of 16 years.
The song "I'll Be Home For Christmas".
Comes on the radio.
I look into his deep brown eyes and sad face
Wishing he were home with me.
I gaze at all the aging residents around me in their wheelchairs
With their walkers and canes
And I wondered where home was for them.
How they might have longed to go back to the place
That was once their own
Instead of this nursing home
With the sterile walls
And coded keypad by the elevator buttons that prevented elopement.
I once thought that if you loved someone enough
You wouldn't have to put them in a nursing home;
You could be together.
Be together…
Like in this wistful Christmas song
That in this light
Caused the heart to ache and bleed.
"I'll be home for Christmas,
If Only In My Dreams…"

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FEEDBACK

Fri, May 12, 2023 at 1:52 PM. Julie S wrote:
Hi Luckily
  Thanks for sharing Helena's wonderful Art. Very creative and love the prayers and poems.
Love Julie

Thu, Feb 1, 2024 at 11:58 PM, Nancy B wrote:
  In Helena's elegy ["My Friend, the Giving Tree" 2024-01-06], you can really feel the emotion in what she wrote. Her art is beautiful, too.

Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 4:35 PM, Lucki wrote:
   Obviously, I don't normally comment on the art I've posted for HelenArt, but this time I had an insight I just plain want to share with people.
   When I first saw Bi-Polar Mind, I just sort of counted the word bubbles; and I thought, "Oh, they're not equal; there's 7 negative ones on the left side and only 6 positive ones on the right side." Then it hit me. "No, look again. Helena put her signature on the right side. The bright side. That's the 7th positive!"
   Good goin', girl.

Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 6:30 PM, Kim B wrote:
  HelenArt - oh my!!!  How expressive.  What a life!
  My love to her.
Kim

Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 7:25 PM, Nilufar wrote:
  I'm honored to own a Helena original which I proudly display in my office at school.
  Excited to see her most recent creations!

Tue, Jul 2, 2024 at 11:50 AM, Lann wrote:
  "The Path" [2024-06-06] really struck me. Helena's  done pieces in support of Ukraine before. "With Ukraine" [2022-03-02] was very direct. "Flowers for Ukraine" [2022-05-16] was less loud, but still direct with the title and the flowers and water reflecting the flag colors. Her mural sketch [2022-06-17] used blue and yellow flowers for Ukraine and red, black, and green flowers for BLM. I liked that, it was so simple. She used them again in "One Country" [2022-06-20]. She used the flag colors at the bottom of "Peace Blossom-Vivid," [2022-11-20] so it was more subtle but still understandable.  But the things in "The Path" was amazing. The blue and yellow, but above them the looming red bringing the storms with lightning like bombs and shells. The only thing standing in the way of the red was the pyramid with the eye for America like the pyramid on $1. All the people are running onto the path to come ask us for continued support and money to help them fight the Russian invasion. Very rich and meaningful. Thank you to Helena.