Helmi Dagmar Juvonen, known simply as "Helmi," was born the second daughter of Finnish immigrants in Butte, Montana on January 17, 1903. When she was 15, her family moved to Seattle, and in 1929 she accepted a scholarship to Cornish College of the Arts to study illustration and puppetry. An avid reader, Helmi's favorite subjects involved the mythologies and spiritual practices of people around the world. Particularly fascinated with the myths and history of the native peoples of her own region, Helmi began to research Northwest native art and became a frequent visitor to several of the area's tribal reservations. Her intense interest and respect for the cultural and spiritual aspects of Native American life made her a welcome guest at a number of sacred ceremonies, where she did sketches of what she saw and experienced.

Actively engaged with the burgeoning Seattle art community, Helmi made and fostered friendships with a number of prominent artists and collectors including Seattle Art Museum founder Dr. Richard Fuller and painter Mark Tobey, with whom she developed a near-legendary obsession that became a frequent subject for her art.

Despite Helmi's success as a regionally important artist, she was continuatlly plagued by a 1930 diagnosis as a manic depressive--(now Bipolar Disorder). In 1959 she was committed to Northern State Hospital in Sedro-Wooley, WA, and after a year she was transferred to Oakhurst Infirmary in Elma, WA where she spent the rest of her life. In spite of her surroundings, Helmi tirelessly continued to produce art using whatever materials she was able to secure.

During the final years of her life she was the subject of a handful of major exhibitions at such institutions as the Frye Art Museum in Seattle and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, WA. In the twenty-two years since her death, public interest in Helmi has grown, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.

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