Helmi Juvonen

Helmi Dagmar Juvonen (1903–1985) was an American artist active in Seattle, Washington. Although she worked in a wide variety of media, she is best known for her prints, paintings, and drawings. She is associated with the artists of the Northwest School.

Helmi Dagmar Juvonen was born in Butte, Montana on January 17, 1903, the second daughter of Finnish immigrants (Helmi is Finnish for Pearl). When she was 15, her family moved to Seattle, Washington. She attended Queen Anne High School, and after graduating, worked various art and design-related jobs while studying illustration, portraiture, and life drawing with private teachers. In 1929 she received a scholarship to Cornish College of the Arts, where she studied illustration with Walter Reese, puppetry with Richard Odlin, and lithography with Emilio Amero.

After finishing her studies at Cornish, Juvonen struggled to make a living in the midst of the Great Depression. She did portraits for well-to-do friends, designed greeting cards, made rag dolls and puppets, illustrated newspaper articles, did department store window displays, and made ceramic keepsakes for gift shops, while pursuing creative art, and occasionally selling or receiving a prize for an original piece.

In 1930 she was first diagnosed with manic depression, and spent three years in Northern State Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, Washington.

An avid reader, Juvonen's favorite subjects were the mythologies and spiritual practices of people around the world. While doing drawings of the Seattle Potlatch festival for a newspaper in 1934, Helmi met Chief Shelton of the Lummi Tribe, and soon after, Chief Colowash of the Yakima tribe, Charlie Swan of the Makah, and White Eagle of the Chippewa. This was the beginning of a lifelong interest in native art and culture. She was eventually invited to attend special ceremonies, some of which were rarely witnessed by outsiders. These experiences had a profound influence on her artwork.

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