Helen Simeonoff, Alaska Native Artist, Born in Kodiak Alaska

Hello and welcome to the Helen J. Simeonoff & Family Etsy store! This store is dedicated to Helen J. Simeonoff, which is owned and operated by her daughter, Sharon Lee and her grandson, Garrett Lane. Thank you for visiting and please enjoy Helen's lifetime of colorful gouache watercolor art!

About the artist:
Helen Jane Simeonoff was born in 1941 to William (Bill) Simeonoff Jr. and Alexandra (Alice) Knagin Simeonoff in Kodiak, Alaska. She loved spending many of her summers at the little village of Afognak, where her mother was born and raised.

She graduated from Kodiak High School in 1959.

Helen then studied art at South Western College painting oils and acrylics. Later, while living in Adak, Alaska she continued her studies in world art at the University of Alaska Adak under the teaching of Rush Cole. Helen credits Ms. Cole for turning her into a water-colorist. Then she traveled to Ravenna, Italy to further develop her art skills.

Helen was passionate about her Alaska Native heritage. The book, Two Journeys, a companion to the Giinaquq: Like a Face Exhibition was dedicated to her. The Dedication reads: “This book is dedicated with gratitude and appreciation to Helen Simeonoff. She understood before most of us the importance of Alphonse Pinart’s work in the Kodiak area. Her determination and perseverance opened our eyes.”

Helen said, “What shocked me was it wasn’t just a mask collection, but beaded headdress from Kodiak and my mother’s village of Afognak, bidarkas, wooden platters in the shape of Halibut, wooden bowls in the shape of Ducks, stone oil lamps, spears with the name inscribed Sezelnev. That was an old family of Afognak who Pinart certainly would have met.”

Helen loved her family, friends and her puppies. She had a wide variety of interests –
photography, researching her Alaska Native heritage and genealogy, silversmithing, sewing, glass beading and glass fusing.

“Helen’s life was as colorful as her paintings”
10/1941 – 01/2011