OOH AAH

hERO is Helen Roowalla, a visual artist of Persian and Indian origin. She was born in Switzerland in 1980 and raised there until the age of 15, when she moved to the United States to complete her education. hERO currently lives and works in Switzerland. She has been actively painting since 2009 but has been drawing all her life. She began her career by painting large-scale insects in oil. Later she moved on to portraiture, with a touch of surrealism, still utilizing oil as her preferred medium. In 2013 she began experimenting with abstract painting, and finally developed her signature pop art style, and embraced acrylic as her new medium of choice. Her style is characterized by bold lines and bright colors. Her lines are curved, almost cartoon-like, and the shapes organic and full of movement. In her short professional career so far, hERO has been exhibiting in collective shows and competitions on a regular basis. In 2013, she was awarded second place at an all-female painting competition in Milan, Italy. Her artwork includes sculptures in clay, as well as murals. She completed a mural for a music school in Switzerland in 2013, and a massage studio in Italy in 2014. hERO draws influence from a variety of life experiences, such as her heritage, her travels, and artists and art movements of the past, from ancient to contemporary. In 2012, she completed a Bachelor’s degree in Art History to strengthen her artistic knowledge. Aside from sculpture classes to learn new techniques, she is entirely self-taught, developing her style and painting techniques through experimentation and consistent work. hERO’s work demonstrates a strong point of view and artistic philosophy. Her love of nature and her spirituality transcend in the themes and colors of her artwork. Zoroastrian by birth, she also embraced the philosophies and universal themes of no harm and karma of religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. She’s an advocate for animal rights and vegetarianism. In addition to working on promoting her artwork to a larger audience to increase international exposure, hERO donates a portion of her income to non-profit animal protection agencies.