ABOUT
ME

Hello, I’m Helen. I am a British/Australian artist, a photographer, a designer, and many other things. But above all, I am human, attempting to make sense of this human experience.

I photograph everyday objects—quiet, overlooked things like lampposts and skip bins—and never fail to be moved when they reveal themselves as exquisite abstract art.

My art is a story of being profoundly changed by the discovery of beauty in the overlooked, at a time I had lost the ability to see any, anywhere. My art taught me that there is always beauty present, even in the darkest of places; it simply needs to be found. And in this act of finding it, I saw my experience begin to change.

Broken surfboards transform into art in Broken Boards

My art practice saved me when all I could see was darkness. It taught me that beauty isn’t something you find—it’s something that is always present, and is something you can learn to see. And by changing how I viewed the world, I began to change how I experienced it.

At its heart, my work is about redefining labels and returning to the truth of who we are—before the world told us who we should be.

Photography is my core medium, but I also explore collage, painting, and textile design, each one a thread in the tapestry of what brings me joy and helps me make sense of what matters.

It’s not what
you look at
that matters,
it’s what
you see.

— Thoreau

A cracked kerb becomes beautiful in How the Light Gets In

Like the beauty in the fragmented, my art continues to remind me that we are not broken; we are perfectly imperfect.

Helen Shearwood’s art is a reminder that even in brokenness, there is grace. Through perspective, memory and abstraction, she invites us to see the world–and ourselves–anew.

— Urbane Gazette (Vol 7 Issue 1)