Dennis
Helppie was born in Sebeka,
Minnesota
in 1926, and grew up in Detroit,
Michigan, where he attended public
schools. He was singled out early
in elementary school to attend special art classes; and later took art classes
at Cooley High School, graduating in 1944.
He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in WWII and was an Aircraft Mechanic
on C-54's and B-17's. This was from
1944-1947. Returning back to the
Detroit
area, he attended Michigan State Normal
College (now
Eastern
Michigan
University) in
Ypsilanti, graduating as an Art Education teacher in
1951. He was the elementary art
teacher at the Croswell-Lexington Rural
School system from
1951-1952, teaching 1-8 grade art classes which he designed.
At that time, he attended part time evening graduate drawing classes at
Wayne University in
Detroit.
Later
in his art career, while working in the private and public sector, he was the
J.H.S. Arts & Crafts Teacher at Lynnwood, Washington from 1954 - 1956.
From 1964-1965, he was a J.H.S. Art Teacher at Slauson J.H.S. in
Ann Arbor,
Michigan.
While
living and working in Philadelphia
in 1963 - 1964, he attended evening and part-time Saturday painting, drawing and
ceramics classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Taylor School of
Fine Arts and the Fleisher Art Memorial.
In 1971, he graduated from the University
of Washington in Seattle with a M. Ed. in the fields of
Educational Psychology and Psychotherapy.
During that time, he also took graduate level individual art studio
courses in painting.
While
employed (by Boeing and later the Federal Government), he had a private art
studio in Seattle
where his focus was on large scale abstract style paintings. During
his extensive work career, he continued to sculpt and paint, off hours and
weekends, and exhibited his works in a number of local art galleries.
From
1970 - 1983, he was tenured faculty at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood,
Washington, teaching courses in Business Management.
In 1983, he lived on Whidbey Island, Freeland,
Washington, where he had a spacious studio.
Throughout the decades of the 70's through the 80's, he was invited to be
a member of the Washington State Artist's Resource Bank.
While in this competition, his works, numbering fourteen, were juried and
placed in schools and public buildings in Washington State.
These art works are primarily organic abstract styles.
Although he was represented by several Seattle Area Art Galleries, he decided to stay out of the
scene and devoted himself to fulltime painting in oils and acrylics. He also completed several important works at that time in stone, wood,
ceramics and stainless steel.
Dennis
and his wife, Sharon, moved to Idaho
in 2006, where they have an art studio and where Dennis paints full time.
His works are contemporary, primarily abstraction of landscapes, seascapes,
portraits, figuratives and symbolic renderings of scenes about him. His
compositions are loaded with colors and vibrating with actions and patterns.-
supremely different! His arctic heritage has influenced works related to
the indigenous peoples of the earth, which is also reflected in some primitive
style renderings.
Mr. Helppie states, "I paint because I can't stop creating,
regardless of my circumstances; my work has to please me. My favorite
concept is that this is the Best of all Worlds! For the purposes of art
labels, I guess I would categorize myself as an Esoteric
Outsider or Contemporary American Abstractionist. I've
always believed that the American Art Scene has been devalued in terms of world
art. I also believe that I have
been fortunate enough to have lived through 6 to 7 decades of American Art as a
practicing artist and
represent the spirit of
America
in my works.”
-Dennis Maxwell Helppie-
