Clinton Helms
Freedoms Rain
Oil and Mix on Canvas
24" x 48" x 1.5"

$5,000

ARTIST STATEMENT: “Freedoms Rain”

This painting was done in February of 2021, in participation with the Black Art Alliance of Charlottesville, Virginia for a Virtual Online show last year titled:” WATER the Ecstasy and Agony of the Black Experience.” hosted by the McGuffey Art Center.  My painting is an illustration of a storm created by GOD in the upper left corner on the painting with images of some of the world’s greatest African American history makers that came before me in the clouds. Some still living, and some dead who paved the road for me to be able to vote, express myself as a man, and as an African American. The transparent chains in the painting, the wire chains around the wrists of the kneeling figure, and the lightning bolt breaking the chains frees the figure. This represents God freeing us from oppression, and showing us that BLACK LIVES DO MATTER

ARTIST BIO:

Clinton Helms is a Fine Artist/Illustrator who was born in Virginia. He is a retired U.S. Army Veteran with 39 years of service. He graduated from VCU School of Arts in 1999, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. He received a Master of Fine Art in Art from Marywood University in Scranton, PA., in 2007. His work is in the collection at VCU Health, UVA Health, the Air Force Arts Program at the Pentagon, and in the homes of many private collectors. Clinton teaches drawing as an Adjunct Instructor with the Art Foundation Program, and he teach figure drawing with the Communications Art Department with the School of Arts at VCU. He currently lives in Goochland, Virginia with his wife Ella B. Helms who is also an Artist as well as an Administrator in the Powhatan County School System.