EDUCATION
2014 Carter Smith fiber artist workshop Boston
2013 Christine Sutherland silk painting artist workshop Durfort, France
2006 Silk Painting Classes, Chastain Arts Center
1996 Joan Tysinger, oil painting classes Spruill Arts Center
1986 Sumie Japanese brush painting in Japan
1982 Georgia State University 1982 BFA Ceramics
EXHIBITIONS group shows
2014 Fierce Fiber, The Art Place At Mountain View
2014 Silk Art, Center For Rehabilitative Energy, Sheldon, GA
2014 Silk Painters International Gallery Show at Conference in Santa Fe, NM
2014 Fiber Arts Show, SEFAA Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance
2013 Dana Gallery, Decatur Arts Festival
2013 Unitarian Church
2013 Fiber Fusion, The Art Place At Mountain View
2013 Silk Art, Center for Rehabilitative Energy, Sheldon, GA
2012 Silk Painters International Gallery Show at Conference in Santa Fe, NM
2012 Dana Gallery, Decatur Arts Festival
2012 Fiber Fusion, The Art Place At Mountain View
2011 Surface Design Association Georgia, DeFoor Gallery
2010 Silk Painters International Gallery Show at Conference in Santa Fe, NM
(1985-88, lived in Japan, returned to Atlanta: motherhood)
1985 Callanwolde Fine Arts Gallery, 2 women show
1985 Piedmont Arts Festival, Gallery Show
1982 UGA Athens Clay Show
PUBLICATIONS
2014 Doodling Borders for Wood Burning, Gourds, and Drawing
by Bettie Lake (page 10)
2013 Silkworm Magazine (Silk Painters International)
2013 Four fiber works selected for SEFAA Southeast Fiber Arts Association Calender
2012 Australian Stitches Magazine, fiber art article
2011 Painting selected for cover of "Immersions" poems by Michele Wolf
2010 Cover of Silkworm Magazine
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2011- present Silk dye painting
Hellenne Vermillion is a mixed media artist who creates carved clay mask bases to which she applies hand dye painted silk, wool roving, and other fibers. Her love of forming with clay and her love of working with fiber, and dye color on silk brought her to combine all these materials in her work. Her interest in archaeology and past cultures and imagining how the people lived their daily lives, along with a high school class where her group created a civilization and it's artifacts were the impetus for the masks she creates today. The masks are from an imaginary civilization and are called spirit masks. The masks show the human and animal spirits of that imaginary world, and are decorated with texture, color, knots, felted wools and beads. They are called tattoo, bird, feline masks along with blue sky and dawn spirit masks. One element that is commonly seen in the works is using threads wrapped around fibers and knots. Hellenne Vermillion is half Japanese and bicultural. The tying of knots in Japanese culture has been taken to an art form and are seen in ceremonial and spiritual work. Although the true meaning of these knots are not fully understood, they are a vital part of her upbringing - meaning they were everywhere, in temples, in shrines, in packaging, and in clothing - and somewhere in the subconscious mind it plays an important role in her work even if its significance isn't understood. Through the mask's eyes, the spirit sees our world, and if we were to see through the eyes of the mask, what would we see?