Sometimes it is only the accumulation of a whole life that reveals the fabric of our humanity. As I look back and move forward, digitally weaving the threads of my art, I see a colorful tapestry of creative empowerment. After decades spent exploring the archetype of the Wise Woman Crone, I hope to become a “cybercrone” beyond my lifetime, providing others a close-up look at how creating art over six decades has been a personal, political and transformational journey. My site, like much of my work, recasts the elder stage of a woman's life as a celebration of creativity rather than a crisis to be medicated with hormone therapy and cosmetic surgery. Although our culture still tosses away this third and crowning stage of female life, many of us find it to be more authentic, outrageous, powerful, funny, healing and profound than we ever imagined.


new site

 White Tara
White Tara Meets Pokémon (mixed media on board, 2020). Follow me on Instagram @redman_helen

The crone experiences time as layered, multifaceted, and often contradictory, similar to how one experiences surfing through cyberspace. Blending the crone's vision of a simultaneous past and present with the artist's ability to communicate through visual form, I offer this website so that others may sense the art in their own lives, their own bodies, and their own souls.

The galleries that follow are organized by theme and chronology:

1. PREGNANCY & CHILDREN (1962-present) See, through a mother’s eye, life cycles from the death of a first child to the maturity of children and grandchildren.

2. MENOPAUSE (1992-1993) Enter the fiery transition into the elder stage of female life, through expressionistic paintings about the uproar of menopause.

3. BIRTHING THE CRONE (1993-1995) Connect with art as catharsis to address rebirth through the ancient archetype of the wise woman crone.

4. BEAUTY OF OLD (1995-present). Observe the traces, textures, lines and shapes of aging throughout nature: Finding Mentors (1995-ongoing), Hands and Leaves (1995-2003), Finding Footing (2005), Turtle Diaries (2008-2011)

5. BODIES OF WORK (1971-1992) Visit a sampling of historical art commenting on diverse cultures in varied styles and mediums: The Moroccan Women (1971-72), Mediatypes of the Sexes (1975-80), Parables of So Cal (1985-90), Fitness Scrolls (1991-1992)

"Artist Helen Redman, in giving electronic form to her ‘Wise Woman Crone,’ hopes to help society reclaim the symbol, once representative of the actualized woman and the fruition of wisdom and life experience. All who linger at [www.birthingthecrone.com] enter a metaphorical terrain resonating with transformation." - Wired Magazine