Hellen Bakhoff
Artist – Textile, fibre, paint
A few years ago, I faced two incredibly challenging, life changing events that turned my world upside down and made me question everything.
I turned to fibre, textile and paint to help rediscover my life purpose. I found a fluid art form that allowed me to express colour and joy and importantly to connect with beauty and certainty. There is something about creating that is so positive. The process of creating gives so much to me and I am discovering it also gives so much to the people who enjoy my artworks. It’s a cycle of energy that delights.
Inevitably my passion for textiles that I have enjoyed since childhood has drawn me back to creating with fabric and exploring new skills. I have discovered painting with fibre through wet felt-making processes and soft sculpture with applique as well as printing on fabric. I now integrate my new painting skills with fabric and stitch. Inspirations and fabric techniques learned on overseas tours to Rajasthan, Bengal and Ghana as well as my Estonian family heritage also inform my work.
My current body of work incorporates felt and quilting techniques with mixed media applique with free-motion machine and hand-stitching. I am exploring my family history through textiles and love the idea of bringing the past into the present in this way.
Hellen Bakhoff , 2022
I turned to fibre, textile and paint to help rediscover my life purpose. I found a fluid art form that allowed me to express colour and joy and importantly to connect with beauty and certainty. There is something about creating that is so positive. The process of creating gives so much to me and I am discovering it also gives so much to the people who enjoy my artworks. It’s a cycle of energy that delights.
Inevitably my passion for textiles that I have enjoyed since childhood has drawn me back to creating with fabric and exploring new skills. I have discovered painting with fibre through wet felt-making processes and soft sculpture with applique as well as printing on fabric. I now integrate my new painting skills with fabric and stitch. Inspirations and fabric techniques learned on overseas tours to Rajasthan, Bengal and Ghana as well as my Estonian family heritage also inform my work.
My current body of work incorporates felt and quilting techniques with mixed media applique with free-motion machine and hand-stitching. I am exploring my family history through textiles and love the idea of bringing the past into the present in this way.
Hellen Bakhoff , 2022
