art treatise
eye of the beholder HELEN DOEMLAND FINDS ART IN THE UNEXPECTED
By Amanda Lisk WALKS along the Cape Fear River become more frequent and enticing for artist Helen Doemland with each trea-sure
she finds. The treasures are pieces of driftwood that appear along the riverbanks following a storm near her
newly built home at Riverlights in Wilmington.
“One of the most amazing things about the wood is it will look like nothing until you take an angle grinder and
sandpaper to it and then you see all the wood grain and all the color and all the spalting, so it’s an adventure and
discovery, which was really the very addictive part of it. It would drive me to go back and find another piece of
wood where that one was,”
says Doemland.
Stumbling upon sections
of American sycamore,
spalted maple, cherry,
cypress and rainbow pop-lar
driftwoods, weathered
by the fast-moving waters
of the river, is like striking
gold.
In the eye of the behold-er,
Doelmand sees a mas-terpiece.
“I’ve taken friends out or
my husband and I will say,
‘Oh look at that!’ And they
will say, ‘You’re going to
do what with that?’” laughs
Doemland.
She transforms the
wood through sculpture,
her favorite medium which
she perfected at Buffalo
State College, where she
received a master’s degree
in art therapy. Using power
tools, she shapes the
driftwood into purposeful,
couture art. Fruit bowls,
charcuterie boards and
decorative accent pieces
are some of her creations.
Artist Helen Doemland embraces the elements of nature whether working with paint, wood or clay. She has recently begun focusing
on handbuilt ceramics.
52 october 2022
WBM
ALLISON POTTER