Art from the heart
A backpacking trip with a friend to Kenya and Uganda when she was 22 tapped into Helen Dean’s adventurous spirit. It was an enormous cultural contrast to life in the English coal-mining village where she was born and raised.
“Visiting the developing world at this age had a big impact and led to my interest in working with migrant communities,” says Auckland-based artist Helen, who also teaches English to refugees and migrants.
After finishing art school, she travelled and worked in France and Spain before taking off on another big trip, this time to South America travelling through Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Helen settled back in the United Kingdom, living in London for the first time. It was here she met her Kiwi partner Tony Drumm and how she ultimately
