Biography

Helen Schrider Higgins
Helen Schrider Higgins

Helen Schrider Higgins was born and raised in Washington DC. She received her BA (1952) and MFA (1955) at Catholic University. While a graduate student at Catholic, she was a student of Kenneth Noland, a well known Washington Color School Painter.  Another  Washington Color School Painter, Howard Mehring was a fellow student and friend.

Helen likes to say that she found her medium – clay,  when she began taking classes with the sculptor and ceramic artist, Alexander Giampietro at Catholic.  Her Masters of Fine Arts Thesis, is an outdoor permanent installation illustrating the life of St. Francis of Assisi and showing the influences of Romanesque Art.  After finishing her Master degree, she taught art for several years at Visitation in Georgetown.

Helen married and raised nine children while continuing to produce art and exhibit with local DC groups and with galleries in North Carolina.

In 1972, she and her husband purchased property in Buxton on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. They  began dividing their time between the natural beauty of the ocean and the cultural activities of the Nations Capital. Helen’s early mornings, walking, drawing, and painting along the ocean have served as an inspiration for much of her work over the past thirty years.

Her bas relief sculpture consists of two major themes, the natural beauty of Cape Hatteras and biblical subjects inspired in form and spirit by the sculpture of the Romanesque Cathedrals. Her media include clay, stone, wood, oil, pastel, watercolor, ink drawing, and lino block printing.