Articles
A Transcendent Journey Through the Motherline: A Voyage with Helen Hardin, Southwest Artist
by Kate T. Donohue, Ph.D., REAT
Helen Hardin, a bicultural southwest artist created her own imagistic mythology of a feminine trinity: Changing Woman, Medicine Woman and Listening Woman. These images combine universal themes and Tewa spiritual legends and emerged from exploring the Motherline: the unconscious feminine legacy of one’s family. Using Hardin’s life and transcendent images, this article explores her Motherline individuation process by delving into her paradoxes (personal, maternal, cultural and
spiritual) that molded her experience, exploring the dynamic of bridging these paradoxes, the transcendent function and how this led to numinous experiences of the sacred feminine.
Paradox, Presicion, and Passion
Passing on the Spirit: Helen Hardin, 1943-1984,
Commemorative Retrospective Exhibition.
Organized by the Institue of American Indian Arts
Santa Fe New Mexico, Summer 1994
Reviewed by Kate T. Donohue, Ph.D., REAT
Paradox, precision, and passion are woven into the life, paintings, and etching plates of Helen Hardin. A Southwest Native American artist, Hardin strove to imbue each creation with her passion and spirit. As a contemporary artist, her work was a bridge between the paradox of her warring internal worlds. Her precision was a compensatory function balancing her unpredictable chaotic childhood and led her into a numinous state in which she danced with her Tewa spirits. This article explores these three themes through a Jungian analysis of her work. Her artistic process climaxed with her most significant work, her Feminine Trinity - Changing Woman, Medicine Woman, and Listening Woman, her representation of the sacred feminine.
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