My name is Faith Helma, and I’m a creator, caregiver, facilitator, and creative guide.

I was a co-founder of Portland’s “innovative, process-driven” performance group Hand2Mouth, and worked with them over 13 years creating 22 multimedia, genre-bending shows — writing music, touring shows, teaching how to create original performance from the ground up.

Then I became a parent, burned out on theatre, hit several walls, and went on a long journey of transformation. I wrote about it, made two solo performances and started doing more drawing (a lot of daily 2-minute self portraits, inspired by Lynda Barry).

I started using these tools to work with other people on their creative projects and life transformations, putting together classes on embracing failure, emotions, play and pretend. I have worked with poets, painters, squirrel rescuers (more than one), theater artists, writers, teachers and landscape artists, and I am proud to tell you that every single one is a goddamn genius.

Four years ago, as you know, the pandemic happened, and like many of us, the demands of caregiving, managing my kids’ complex needs, coming to understand my own neurodivergent nature and a bunch of other random stuff sent me on another long dark road of transformation. I started painting with watercolors to handle the wildly different directions life kept sending me, and to process my trauma and grief. I’m still figuring out how to tell the story of that time (the time I’m still in), but what I can tell you is that making art has saved me over and over, showing me to myself, teaching me about community and helping me know myself better — every single day.