Victoria Helen — Paintings Photographed by Mitch Rossow
Whimsical Animal Painter · Northrup King Building, Minneapolis
Victoria Helen (Michele Victoria Helen Kraft) is a Minneapolis painter whose cats, pigs, pigeons, owls and chickens land somewhere between portrait and cartoon. In her own words: “Today, I create living cartoons. Moments of joy, and sometimes a tad creepy.”
She came to painting sideways. After years as a floral designer, she bought a few tiny canvases at a craft store and started teaching herself, painting octopuses over and over and using the tentacles to work out direction, perspective, shading and highlights. Owls, foxes and chickens followed, then commissions and charity work. Today her muses are mostly pigs, pigeons and the many cats she lives with.
Victoria founded Feline Fantastica, the annual cat art show in the Northrup King Building’s third floor gallery, which brings together artists of every medium and partners with the Bitty Kitty Brigade kitten rescue. You can find her work at Niche Gallery in the Northrup King Building, studio #258, alongside three other artists, and during open studio events like Art-A-Whirl and Art Attack. She sells originals, prints and hand-embellished prints at art fairs and online, and takes commissions.
victoriahelen.com · NEMAA artist page
Victoria’s work lives on color and on the small details that carry the humor. Since prints are a big part of how she sells, the photograph has to hold all of it. Schedule your own session →
