Helena Horak
1943 - 2003
If Prague-born scientist and ceramics artist Helena Horak had not moved to Edmonton, she and her husband would never have experienced the 1976 car accident that left them both so terribly injured. But had she not experienced that terrible event, she might never have encompassed the resilience she gained and her will to express herself through clay. To explain both, Horak quoted German novelist Erich Maria Remarque: “That’s where everything begins—courage, compassion, humanity, love, and the tragic rainbow of beauty. When we realise that nothing remains.”
After having earned an MSc at Prague’s Charles University (1968), Horak completed her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Manitoba (1971) and then settled in Edmonton where she worked for years as a researcher at the University of Alberta.
In the 1990s Horak shifted her passions to pottery and began full-time work as a ceramics artist. Her glazed ceramic platter entitled “Carnations” (1996), a raku piece decorated with wax and glazes, abides in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. The platter’s lively arrangement of florid forms contrasts with the muted blues of its blossoms and the autumnal ochre of its leaves and stems. Despite the sombreness of the hues, the image would comfortably dwell on any exuberant Ancient Egyptian frieze.
Following a lengthy and difficult experience of cancer, Horak died in Edmonton in 2003 at age 60. Her obituary described her as a “fiery and adventurous” woman who was “a strong force in the lives of all those whom she knew…. [with] passion for life [that] came through in her love of hiking and skiing, of music and art, of travel and exploration.”
After having earned an MSc at Prague’s Charles University (1968), Horak completed her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Manitoba (1971) and then settled in Edmonton where she worked for years as a researcher at the University of Alberta.
In the 1990s Horak shifted her passions to pottery and began full-time work as a ceramics artist. Her glazed ceramic platter entitled “Carnations” (1996), a raku piece decorated with wax and glazes, abides in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. The platter’s lively arrangement of florid forms contrasts with the muted blues of its blossoms and the autumnal ochre of its leaves and stems. Despite the sombreness of the hues, the image would comfortably dwell on any exuberant Ancient Egyptian frieze.
Following a lengthy and difficult experience of cancer, Horak died in Edmonton in 2003 at age 60. Her obituary described her as a “fiery and adventurous” woman who was “a strong force in the lives of all those whom she knew…. [with] passion for life [that] came through in her love of hiking and skiing, of music and art, of travel and exploration.”