Helen Burling Ottaway (1938 - 2000), Celebrating Halloween Art

Ottaway, a Virginia artist, was a aquatint etching master, and is the designated artist for Halloween this year. Her etching, “Kitchen Window” reflects a cross between her fantasies and her nightmarish imagination. The print draws upon the tradition of beast, monster and death. There are small bat-like beasties with human bodies that are swarming, and angels falling from the sky with horror, the angel wings are represented by leaves. In the middle of the composition, red demons are demonstrating their sorcery.

Etching Detail
Top half of Print

Fantasies lurk; there is an elephant, a monster man, an angry dog, with many of the images intertwined. In the lower section of the etching, there is a birdman with seed-pod eyes and a hook beak, and a human skull connects to a tree trunk. The entire print is a symphony of damnation where wickedness lures souls away from paradise. The great modern French poet, Baudelaire catches the print’s mood in his poem:

Who but the Devil pulls our walking-strings!

Abominations lure us to their side;

Each day we take another step to hell,

Descending through the stench, horrified....

Packed in our brains incestuous as worms

Our demons celebrate in drunken gangs....

Of filthy beasts that screech, howl, grovel, grunt -

In this menagerie of mankind’s vice...

"Kitchen Window"
Print Number 3/20
Signed: H. Ottaway, 1979

Helen Burling Ottaway, b. May 31, 1938, was part of the northern Virginia art seen. For many years she exhibited as part of the artist stable at Gallery West in Alexandria, VA. She was most noted for her aquatint etchings and drawings. One of her exhibits at Gallery West was entitled: “An Occasional Pair of Claws, Fantasy Art.” The exhibit was held Nov/Dec 1986. She had a solo show at the Occoquan Gallery entitled “Whimsical Fantasy” August 1988.

She coordinated exhibits including a show at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, Washington, DC, entitled: "The Fictionist Concrete", a group show, 1986. And Ms. Ottaway was an art instructor, teaching printmaking at Delray Atelier and Capitol Hill Art League/Capital Hill Art Workshops in Washington.

Ottaway was a graduate of Cornell (1961), and was married to the late Malcolm Ottaway.

References:

The Well-Crafted Word, Newsletters, delrayartisan.org, Helen Ottaway, Board Member.

National Museum of Women Artist, Clara - Database of Women Artists.

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