HELEN BURKHART MAYFIELD (1939-1997)
Born in 1939 in Houston, Texas, but raised in Blanco; Helen was always the child more interested in the colors of the sunset and poetry than typical activities of growing up. She left home following high school and moved to San Marcos to attend South West Texas State University until she met and fell in love with artist Martin Mayfield. They left college and moved to Greenwich Village in New York. As they were both artists, much of their time was spent drawing, painting, and creating collage work. Helen also became an early student and devotee of interpretive dance at the Isadora Duncan school in New York and was involved in many street performances during this period.
In the mid 1960’s Helen and Martin left New York and moved back to Austin to await the birth of their daughter, Mariah. Helen and Martin attended Quaker services. Through Helen’s love of modern dance, she started the first interpretive dance toupe in Austin, known as the NOSO Dancers. Helen had a deep love of art and continued to create. She taught herself piano and composed music. Helen volunteered to work with art at the Austin State Hospital for the Insane. As afternoon art assitant, Helen found Eddy Arning drawing in coloring books and supplied him with crayons and paper. Her discovery and nurturing of Eddie Arning’s talent is documented in many art books.
Helen and husband began the 23rd Street Peoples Market where she sold her own drawings and prints. They also opened “Revival - Findings & Folk Art” in the late 1960’s to sell her art as well as other findings. They then move to Bastrop, but Helen returns for she can not stand the isolation. She eventually divorces Martin, and by this time it becomes evident that Helen is fighting her own demons from within. She begins the 23rd Street Peoples Market where she sold her own drawings and prints. Her internal demons, visions and voices appear in her drawings which are hauntingly real and horrific, yet elegant and beautiful with their sophiticated lines.
In the late 1980’s, Helen begins to live on the streets and becomes well known on Austin's “drag” as the lady wearing the wild hats made of found objects and sarongs of mulitple layers of wrapped fabric. During this time, Helen returned to her love collage and picked up magazines at local barber shops along the drag to create masks which were used in her own street performances. She was obsessed with various methods of divination and filled numerous notebooks with numbers and mysterious poetry.
Life was hard for Helen with her own internal stuggles and challenges of living on the streets. She passed away in 1997 at the age of 58, leaving behind a daughter, memories for the many people who came in contact with her, and multitudes of artwork which in itself tells Helen’s story of passion, fear, and extreme talent.