2018
HELEN MILLAR

ARTIST STATEMENT
HISTORY herSTORY – New life in a harsh foreign land

My response to HISTORY herSTORY is this collection of small, narrative works; paintings 2D and 3D and embroidery.

I have taken a chronological approach, beginning with the time and place where the story of European settlement began and moved my way down, to my neck of the woods, my childhood town in the Victorian Western District and later, Melbourne and Geelong.

Indulging my love of local history, period costume, miniature paintings, antique embroidery, antique dolls and doll's houses, I tell little stories about women and children, real and imagined. My picture stories have connections with tales I grew up with, to places I have visited and in researching interesting women whose stories have piqued my interest.

I enjoy utilising discarded materials such as fish tins, an old cotton sheet, a woollen blanket and with glue and paint seeing their transformation into something 'precious'.