Woman's life in the arts influenced by chronic illness

Helen Hanson is looking for her next new beginning. She’s not sure what form it will take, but she knows she’ll find it.

Sitting in the kitchen of her home on Blanchard Lake Road, Hanson reflected on her life spent working in the arts and dealing with a chronic illness. She says the end of something isn’t a bad thing.

“We should celebrate the end the way we celebrate the beginning,” she said. “Because the next thing to come after the end is a new beginning.”

Hanson spent most of her professional career working as an actor in the TV and film industry. Her life took a sharp turn in 2000 when she was diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA). The disease, formally known as Wegener’s, is a rare disorder that causes inflammation of the blood vessels and often affects the lungs and respiratory system, and kidneys.

She says her strongest allies throughout the illness have been a good sense of humor, meditation and being with the people she loves.

Like anyone suffering from a chronic disease, she has her good days and bad days.

Her worst day came in May when she stopped breathing.

Hanson was flown to Spokane, Wash., for an emergency surgical procedure in which a laser was used to place slits in her trachea and a silicone balloon was inflated to open her airway. Although she lived with the chronic illness for years, that moment changed her.

“I always thought I would continue as best I could day to day,” she said. “It simply did not register that in an instant the effects of the disease could make it impossible for me to breathe.”

Hanson was exposed to the arts at a young age. Her mother was a docent at the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, where Hanson spent her childhood absorbing art. As a fourth-grader she got her first acting part playing Eeyore in “Winnie the Pooh.”

She would eventually live in New York City and Los Angeles pursing a professional acting career. She did work in TV and film including, “Days of our Lives,” “Santa Barbara,” “L.A. Law,” “Matlock” and “Cold Dog Soup,” to name a few.

A highlight of her career was acting in an Alfred Hitchcock TV series.

When her professional career ended and she turned to coaching and directing.

In 2005, she, her husband Anker and their two children moved to Whitefish.

As a founding member of the Stumptown Players, she focused her energy on community theater. Hanson says her time performing live on stage was memorable.

“Theater was fun,” she said. “I like taking an artists’ work, working with a team to interpret that work, and producing a vision. Acting in theater was a new challenge for me.”

Hanson starred in “33 Variations” which tells the story of a woman who is dying of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Hanson was drawn to the challenge of the role. While the diseases aren’t similar, both GPA and Lou Gehrig’s are rare.

“It was a very interesting journey for me,” she said.

Eventually, live acting became too difficult due to GPA and she made the tough decision to step away from the theater spotlight.

“It was very, very difficult,” she said. “The thing I loved most was live theater.”

She turned her attention to the visual arts and began working from her home studio creating collages inspired by the things around her.

For one piece she weaved together suede and paper. Another uses paper and a bee’s nest.

She made several collages that feature Buddha figures because she calls art her “meditative practice.”

“It was a great process,” she said. “It was healing for me.”

Following her hospitalization in May, Hanson decided to move on again — she knew she was finished with her collage art. The pressure of trying to sell her art work had become too much, and the stress had put more strain on her body.

“I’ve learned to pay attention,” she said. “I know when a connection is done. I loved it and it was fun to make, but I knew it was over.”

This weekend, she is holding an “everything goes” sale at her home art studio.

“I’m making space for the next thing to come,” she said.

More than 200 of her collages, paper, supplies, glues, paints and more will all be sold. Artist Shawna Moore will also raffle one of her pieces. Proceeds will go to help with Hanson’s medical bills.

Hanson says she is deeply grateful to her family, friends and so many wonderful residents of Whitefish for their kindness, help, love and support.

The art sale will take place Saturday, Aug. 3 at the Hanson home at 350 Blanchard Lake Rd., south of Whitefish. The sale is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.