ARTISTS BIO
CAROLENA HELDERMAN
I grew up in the '70s near Potters Cottage in Warrandyte, Victoria. Perhaps it was in my destiny to land in the mud and a mudbrick house!
In the late '80s, I studied Ceramics at Box Hill TAFE with Kevin Boyd as my teacher for two years. I recently undertook a two day glazing workshop with Kevin.
Following that, I went on complete two years of a Ceramics degree at RMIT. Lectrurers at that time were Kevin White, Pam Irving.
I absconed and worked in theatre, animation, web design & the environment. But I've come back to ceramics 35 years later and there's a reason.
Moving from a life of inner city living to the Strathbogie Tablelands has allowed me to set up studio, have the space and freedom to fire outdoors and begin again. I made some pretty whacky things back in my day—giraffe feeding bowls and bright '80s slip bowls sold at Pigtails on Brunswick Street.
RMIT 1988. Slab Building Project. Sprayed oxide slips & Smoke fired.
BackART Gallery, Violet Town.
2024 Resilence Exhibition- Carolena Helderman & painter Jen Wilson.
You could say that this is the beginning, or the re-set of my
life with clay. Much of it comes back easily as if it never left, some things are new - firing kilns was always done by the technician.
With a fully setup studio and a dream Skutt Kiln, l balance between my work as a native seed collector at the GBIS Seedbank, managing a 22 acre Trust for Nature bush property and my ultimate wish to be a creative Artist whose work will always reflect my surroundings.
Living in a rural setting allows for much freedom, to dig pits for group firings, gather the clay dug from the wombat burrows, inspiration from the granite boulders and fallen orange eucalypt leaves - all of this, you will see in my work.