Helen Gregory's Blue Tanagers courtesy of the artist and the Rooms

I discovered Helen Gregory in the National Post on Thursday and I haven’t stopped thinking of her since. She has a show in Newfoundland (where she’s from) at the Rooms called Unrequited Death: Helen Gregory and it is curated by award-winning novelist Lisa Moore.

Helen has a fascination with collecting things (be still my heart). What she collects is organic detritus – bird’s nests, eggs, skeleton’s, dead flowers, rocks, and the like. What is dead and repulsive, is at the same time, exuisite.

Apart from the image above, Helen uses lush Victorian designs as back drops for her still lifes. Think natural history, William Morris, Darwin, Victorian museums and Dutch Still Lifes (be still my heart, again.)

Aside from looking at her own collection, she was able to study the collections from natural history museums – at the Rooms in St. John’s, the Redpath Museum in Montreal, and the Canadian Museum of Nature near Ottawa.

You can find a really great video of Helen’s process on You Tube. I’ve already watched it about 20 times. The exhibition continues until May 16.

You can read the Q & A in the National Post here. I think this is a condensed version. And P.S. Leah Sandals who wrote the article has a pretty cool blog.