Helen Chellin, founder and director of Red Cinder, is a painter and mixed-media artist who has also worked extensively as a set designer for theater and dance. From 1984 to 1999 she operated her own jewelry business, Helen Chellin Designs, creating and marketing fashion and artwear jewelry. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin (B.S. in Fine Art), she earned her master´s degree in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University in 1972. She has had solo exhibitions at Southern Exposure Gallery and ODC Theater Gallery in San Francisco, and participated in group shows in California, New York, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Paris. She has been named artist in residence by the International Arts Program, Cité International des Arts of Paris, and the California Arts Council.

Helen and her husband have three grown children and a dog. Born in New York and a long-time resident of San Francisco, she now divides her time between the Bay Area and Hawai´i.

Helen cherishes her experience of being an artist in residence, believing that all artists need such times away from their regular routines to stimulate and focus creativity. The problem, she found, was that as a full-time parent with a business to run, she could not take advantage of most traditional artist-colony programs, which require at least a month´s residency. "I realized that there must be many serious artists in similar situations, and I began to think about creating a place where artists with ´other lives´ could come for shorter time periods, yet be in a true retreat setting with a community of fellow artists."

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