Thesis Exhibition:  March 19 - March 22  

Reception: March 21, 2025, 5-8 pm   

Summits of palm and pine (close up), 2024, engraved window pane, safety glass, wooden beam, ivy palm cutting, wooden pallet, blown glass, cyanotype, oil, water, 7.5'x6"x4"

In the living room peeling skins (Close up), 2024, reclaimed and carved wooden beam, slip cast porcelain, 6.5x7x2'    

Artist Statement  

I create works that invite reflection on how cycles of use, neglect, and transformation shape the spaces we inhabit and the relationships they sustain. Through poetic interventions between print, sculpture, and glass, I transform discarded materials into narratives of loss, care, and resilience. In doing so I engage with material histories of extraction, consumption, and abandonment. Investigating notions of home, memory, and the human imprint on our environment, my work explores the fragility of place and the traces we leave behind.

I examine remnants and memorials found in the peripheries of cities that serve as physical expressions of grief and collective mourning in both public and private spaces. These forms of remembrance raise questions about impermanence and the tension between preservation and erosion. Examining the relationship between the rural and the urban, the built and the organic, I explore how the permanence of human impact can be confronted by memorization. I seek to honor what has been forgotten or lost, to preserve, and to imagine new ways of caring for the spaces we inhabit, both individually and collectively.

More information about Rae Helms at raehelms.ink https://www.instagram.com/printmakerrae/.  

All photos are credited to the artist.