Wendy Helliwell is a mixed media artist working from her studio in Edinburgh. She grew up in the 80’s surrounded by Fashion, Pop Culture, Advertising and the growing visual media (Vogue,The Face, I.D, MTV and Cosmopolitan) where many continue to influence her work to this day.
Predominately self-taught, Wendy advanced to complete two mixed-media courses at Edinburgh College of Art in 2013 adding further strings to her bow. Her continued love of fashion, style and identity, yet remaining sustainable in her approach sees her mixing traditional materials with unconventional inclusive of glossy magazines, make-up, nail-polish, old clothing and other throw-away effects in her fusion of painting and collage based compositions.
A keen environmentalist, Wendy recycles as much as possible in her works. In 2014 she collected make-up from the supporting public to create a large piece of art ‘Shades of Life’ which was auctioned off to raise awareness and funds for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. This was followed closely by the media resulting in multiple Newspaper and TV coverage.
In 2019 Wendy’s design Aff Yir Rocker was selected for Oor Wullie’s Big bucket trail, the first ever nationwide public art trail. Celebrating Scottish music and encouraging recycling, she secured donations of old clothing from 11 of Scotland's musical greats from Midge Ure to KT Tunstall to name a few and a signature on the sculpture itself from Lewis Capaldi on the same day he launched his now worldwide number 1 album.
Wendy aims to represent the modern consumer landscape with a combination of celebration and critique by disassembling and reconstructing the cultural symbols, motifs and paradigms of the past and present. This results in colourful, tactile, eye-catching works often depicting an unplanned narrative and frequently presenting themselves in 3D form for maximum impact.
