As an oil painter, I am pursuing a path of genre painting. Working from life helps me achieve a likeness and what I intercept as psychological urgency. I mainly paint figures in domestic interiors and landscapes, constantly exploring pattern and color. With color harmony, I am addressing ideas of beauty and its healing power in art. Depicting stillness and contemplation relates to unseen, unspoken times we don’t address. While capturing fleeting moments, I am holding nostalgia at a distance by using slightly off-kilter vantage points and occasionally abrupt, painterly brushstrokes with intense lighting which together contribute to a feeling of suspense as if these snapshots are bottled up in time.
I begin by setting up my subject in their environment where they feel most true to themselves. Choosing a composition that allows the subject to melt into the environment helps me tell the story and document the gamut of emotions we face throughout the day such as joy, peace, and moodiness. I intentionally leave visible drawing marks and scraped areas to show how I had excavated the painting using my palette scraper or sandpaper to take off old layers of paint then repainted over it. These result in areas of impasto as well as translucency which add dynamism to my work and furthers my storytelling.
Curriculum Vitae
Helen Cardamone
2/25/2024
Education
2023 MFA, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2023 Barnes-de Mazia Certificate Program, 14-week long program
2022 The Rome Workshops 6-Week Long Painting Program
2021 Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Continuing Education
2017 BA in Fine Arts, minor in Entrepreneurship, Wake Forest University,
Winston-Salem, NC
Teaching
2023-24 Resident Teaching Artist with ArtistYear, Philadelphia, PA
2023 Graduate Teaching Assistant in ‘Life Painting’, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2022 Graduate Teaching Assistant in ‘Wet/Dry Media’, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2022 Graduate Teaching Assistant in ‘Structure and Form Figure Drawing’, Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2021-22 Youth and Family Program Team Member and Educator, Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts Museum, Philadelphia, PA
2020 Tutor, Cambridge School Volunteers, Inc, Cambridge, MA
Awards/Projects
2021 Artistic Excellence Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
2021 People’s Choice, Thousand Islands Art Center, Clayton, NY
2021 Juror’s Choice, Thousand Islands Art Center, Clayton, NY
2021 Self-Published a Children’s Book, “A St. Lawrence Summer”
Group Exhibitions
2023 Woman: Thunder and Strength, Tisa Gallery, Clayton, NY
2023 Annual Student Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2023 Anything Goes, Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2022 215 610 Contemporary Art Exhibition, Delaware County Community College, Media,
PA, Juror: Alex Klein
2022 Size Matters In Art, Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia,
PA
2022 Blue, Gallery 8, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2022 Along the River’s Edge, Thousand Islands Art Center, Clayton, NY
2021 Along the River’s Edge, Thousand Islands Art Center, Clayton, NY
2020 Along the River’s Edge, Thousand Islands Art Center, Clayton, NY
Publications/Press
Brock, Chris. “Winners Announced at 'along the Rivers Edge' Exhibit and Sale.” NNY360, 24 June
Loew, Marina. “And the Winners Are...” Thousand Islands Arts Center, 17 May 2022,
www.tiartscenter.org/and-the-winners-are/.
Smith, Susan. “Book Review: A St. Lawrence Summer, by Helen Cardamone.”
ThousandIslandsLife.com, Oct. 2021,
https://thousandislandslife.com/book-review-a-st-lawrence-summer-by-helen-caradmone/
Exhibitions Juried/Co-Curated
2022 “Size Matters…In Art”, Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, PA
Artist Talks
2023 Thesis Symposium, "My Gaze and the Female Gaze", Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, PA