Key West’s Helen Harrison transforms pieces of nature and found objects – from palm fiber and calabash to conch shells and coconuts – into sophisticated sculptures with balanced design and unexpected beauty.
Artist: Born in Jefferson City, Missouri, she graduated with a BFA from Southern Methodist University. After college she married her husband Ben and moved to San Francisco. From there, they drove to Costa Rica, where the couple spent four years building a 38-foot sailboat.
After 11 years of living aboard the boat, they settled in Key West where they rented studio space for a wood shop in a deserted Navy barracks on Truman Annex. It was there Harrison began transitioning from boatbuilding to making one-off sculptures using the skills she had acquired.
Company/studio: Harrison directs Harrison Gallery, founded in 1986, in Key West.
“Curating the gallery has allowed me to come into contact with so many different styles of art besides my own,” said Harrison. “My life and art are inextricably intertwined, as my gallery and studio are an extension of our adjacent home.”
Art & materials: Modern sculptures inspired by Key West’s tropical environment ($400 to $40,000) depending on scale and materials.
Materials include a variety of raw elements, such as hardwoods, palms, bone, coral, shells, pods, seeds, Also glass, semi-precious stones, bronze, gold and paint.
“Key West has a wealth of beautiful hardwoods that speak to me,” said Harrison. “Part of wood’s allure is how it can be combined with other materials.”
In the last five years, she has taken a step further by collaborating with a Miami foundry casting in bronze.
Commissions:
- Modernize the childhood desk of author Judy Blume, who has a home in Key West.
Harrison replaced the original hardware with sculpted handles made of bone and amber; refinished and painted the exterior and interior with jazzed up colors.
“The old, colonial-style-little-girl desk, which was made by Judy’s father, got a sophisticated make-over,” said Harrison.
- A large bronze outdoor sculpture for a Key West home. Scale and durability were a challenge, she said.
Inspirations:
- The vibrant surreal colors, light, textures, and shapes in her tropical landscape.
- The Studio Wood Art Movement and Collectors of Wood Art.
- Modernist sculptors and furniture makers like Wendall Castle, Barbara Hepworth, Judy Kensley McKie, Henry Moore, Sam Maloof, Emilie Briezinski, Charles Pebworth and Isamu Noguchi.
Recent awards/honors:
In 2022, Harrison and her husband Ben, a musician and writer, were honored with the Golden Mango Award from The Studios of Key West.
Every year, the award recognizes “a person who fosters aesthetic, social, intellectual, and monetary contributions to our island arts community and its reputation as a center for the arts.”
Recent project: Just finished “On Pointe V,” part of a series incorporating ballet shoes and other objects.
What’s next: Revisiting a project that has been on hold for the past five years: sculpting her largest palm, fiber-based hanging piece yet into an abstract form.
Where to buy:
- Harrison Gallery, 825 White St., Key West, FL.
- Harrison Gallery.com
Connect:
- Facebook: Harrison Gallery
- Instagram: @harrisongallery
