Helen Hardin facts for kids

Helen Hardin (May 28, 1943 – June 9, 1984) was a talented Native American painter. Her Tewa name was Tsa-sah-wee-eh, which means "Little Standing Spruce." She started selling her art and gained recognition at a young age. She even appeared in Seventeen magazine before she turned 18.

Helen's art was a way for her to express her spiritual beliefs. It combined her Roman Catholic upbringing with her Native American background. She created modern paintings using geometric shapes and symbols from Native American culture. These included images of corn, katsinas (spiritual beings), and chiefs. In 1976, she was featured in a special TV series on Public Broadcasting System about American Indian artists.

Early Life and Education

Helen Hardin was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 28, 1943. Her mother was Pablita Velarde, a famous artist from the Santa Clara Pueblo. Her father, Herbert Hardin, was a European-American man who used to be a police officer.

Helen's first language was Tewa. About a month after she was born, she received her Tewa name, Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh, at a special ceremony. She grew up with her artistic mother and family at the Santa Clara Pueblo. However, she also spent much of her life going to school and living in the wider "Anglo" (non-Native American) world. She felt she was "Anglo socially and Indian in [her] art."

Helen showed artistic talent very early. When she was six, she won first prize for a drawing. By age nine, her artwork was being sold alongside her mother's at events in Gallup. Even though her mother influenced her, Helen wanted to create her own unique style. As she became more artistic, her relationship with her mother grew difficult. This was also partly because her parents divorced around 1957 or 1959.

She studied drafting at St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque. In the summer of 1960, Helen attended the Southwest Indian Art Project at the University of Arizona. This program was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. She was also featured in Seventeen magazine while still in high school.

In 1961 and 1962, she studied architecture and art at the University of New Mexico. Her mother wanted her to study business instead and didn't like her paintings. Helen saw her own art as non-traditional. Yet, she was inspired by ancient Native American pictographs, petroglyphs, and pottery designs. She was also influenced by her teacher Joe Herrera, a Cubist artist from the Cochiti Pueblo.

After high school, Helen had a daughter named Margarete Bagshaw in 1964. She had to paint secretly because her boyfriend and her mother did not approve. In 1968, she went to Bogotá, Colombia. She needed a break from her difficult relationship and her mother. She later said, "I awoke to the fact that I was twenty-four years old, I was locked into an unhappy [relationship], and I was not painting. I didn't know who I was or what I was. In search of personal freedom, I took Margarete... and left the country."

Artistic Style and Career

Helen Hardin, The Woman Series: Changing Woman, Medicine Woman, and Listening Woman, 1981-1984

Helen Hardin was a studio artist. From the 1960s to the mid-1970s, she gave talks and showed her paintings at Albuquerque's Enchanted Mesa Gallery. Her early artworks were more realistic. She signed them with her Tewa name, Tsa-Sah-Wee-Eh. Her art was influenced by her spiritual beliefs and the supportive "angels" in her life.

Helen used many layers of paint to create her works, sometimes up to 26 layers. These layers included ink washes, acrylics, airbrush, and varnish. She painted tiny dots called stipples and spattered paint with a toothbrush, like ancient Anasazi pottery. She also applied transparent washes.

In 1964, Helen created the painting Medicine Talk for her first big solo art show. While visiting her father in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1968, she began painting seriously. She had a very successful show at the American Embassy there, selling 27 paintings. In the United States, her reputation was often linked to her mother's success. In Colombia, her success was based only on her own talent.

When she returned to the United States, her art became more geometric and abstract. She started using deep, rich colors. New Mexico Magazine said Helen brought a "new look" to Native American art. This publicity was a turning point in her career, leading to more success and recognition. In 1971, she had another show in Guatemala City.

As her career grew, Helen became known for complex works. These combined colorful images and symbols from her Native American heritage with modern abstract art techniques. Her work often featured images of women, chiefs, and kachinas. She also used designs from pueblo pottery. As she advanced, she added modern elements. For example, her paintings of kachinas and blanketed chiefs included geometric patterns. She made these patterns using drafting tools like templates, rulers, and protractors. Kachinas, or heavenly messengers, had a special spiritual meaning for her. They were like the saints in her Catholic tradition, connecting people on Earth with heaven.

In 1976, she was filmed for a TV series on American Indian artists for Public Broadcasting System. Other artists featured in the series included R. C. Gorman, Charles Loloma, and Allan Houser.

Her painting Bountiful Mother, made in 1980, shows two important ideas of motherhood from the Pueblo and Hopi cultures: Corn Mother and Mother Earth. Corn was so important to the pueblo people that it was seen as "a living entity." In the painting, the kernels of blue corn on the woman's body symbolize her fertility. In 1981, she created the self-portrait Metamorphosis. Her biographer, Jay Scott, said the painting showed her features inside a perfect circle, a symbol of wholeness for Helen. But everything else in the painting was broken and uneven, showing the "tormented pieces of her life."

From 1980 to 1984, she completed 23 copper plate etchings. This included a series with Changing Woman, Medicine Woman, and Listening Woman. She planned to create Creative Woman as part of this series, but she passed away before finishing it. These etchings showed the "intellectual, emotional, and sensitive" sides of womanhood.

Helen Hardin was also asked to illustrate children's books for Clarke Industries. She also designed coins for Franklin Mint's History of the American Indian series.

Helen Hardin's work was part of a major art show called Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting. This show was held from 2019 to 2021 at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York.

Personal Life

In 1973, Helen Hardin married Cradoc Bagshaw, who was a professional photographer. Her relationship with her mother improved in the 1980s, and her mother became very supportive of her artwork. Helen was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1981. She passed away in New Mexico in 1984.

Awards and Recognition

Helen Hardin received many honors for her artwork. She won "Best of Show," first prizes, and grand awards at several important events. These included the Heard Museum, the Scottsdale National Indian Arts Exhibition, the Philbrook Art Center, the Inter-Tribal Ceremonial at Gallup, New Mexico, and the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Collections

Her artworks can be found in the collections of these museums and institutions:

Selected Works

Here are some of Helen Hardin's notable artworks: