* Each dated collage was made using that week’s news. The captions below highlight key stories, but look closely and you’ll find more in the layers

Projectile News:
Week of January 1, 2018 (24” × 30”)

Selected headlines include the rise of the MeToo movement, GOP efforts to criminalize the Steele dossier’s author, and growing fears of Russian influence in American democracy.

Code Red
Week of February 11, 2018 (24” × 30”)

This week’s collage captures a moment that gripped the nation; the Parkland, Florida school shooting that sparked a teen uprising, the cultural breakthrough of Black Panther, and global unity at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Bring Back Our Girls
Week of April 8, 2018 (30” × 24”)

In a week of nonstop headlines I narrowed the lens to one story, the return of the Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. Their rescue, amplified by global voices including Michelle Obama’s, became a symbol of what global solidarity makes possible.

Snatched
Week of June 17, 2018 (12” × 16”)

This week’s collage captures the horror of the U.S. family separation policy, spotlighting the national symbol, the bald eagle, as complicit in cruelty and the collective numbness of those who allowed and justified it.

Project Overview

From Ego To Essence is a ten-year visual archive (2018-2028) documenting the political and cultural turbulence of our era and the ways individuals and societies navigate trauma, division and renewal.
In 2018 I created 52 dated collages, one for each week of the year, using newspaper headlines to capture what was happening in America and the world. Over time the project expanded beyond politics to explore a deeper question; how do we move from reaction and rage toward wholeness and hope?
This archive is not only a personal journey but a collective one. An attempt to preserve, interpret and reflect on a decade that will define our history.

WTF
Week of July 15, 2018 (24” × 30”)

Trump sides with Putin over U.S. intelligence live from Helsinki, as shockwaves ripple globally, GOP leaders and Fox News contort themselves to justify the unjustifiable, even clinging to the absurd claim that Trump simply misspoke one word: “would” vs. “wouldn’t.” Many were left stunned, furious and asking, WTF.

Caution!
Week of October 21, 2018 (36” × 24”)

This week’s collage spotlights the gruesome murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, escalating violence from far-right extremists, and the Trump administration’s unapologetic embrace of Saudi wealth and power. With global outrage rising, the triangle warns: when violence, silence and greed align, proceed with caution.

The Resistance
Week of November 11, 2018 (36” × 24”)

Democrats retake the House in what headlines declared “The Year of the Woman” as a historic number of women flip seats and shift the balance of power. A New York Times Magazine cover catalogs the growing threat of right-wing extremism, listing violent attacks since Trump’s election. Meanwhile, Facebook is finally called to account before Congress for its role in spreading disinformation.

Helen Hamblin

Helen Hamblin is an artist and visual documentarian whose work bridges world events, storytelling and spiritual reflection. A lifelong traveler and learner, she draws on a background in political science, journalism, interior design and years as a New York City public school teacher, paths that deepened her understanding of culture, power structures and the human capacity for transformation.

Her decade-long project, From Ego to Essence, creates a visual archive of this era, layering headlines, collage and transparent paint to reveal both cultural fracture and inner awakening. Rooted in her daily practice of A Course In Miracles workbook/text, and the meditative act of creating, Helen is a lifelong seeker who finally found stillness through this work.

Based in Florida, she invites viewers to look closely at her art, and at themselves, to imagine what becomes possible beyond division, and beyond the inner and outer noise we’ve come to accept as normal.

Project Arc Timeline

(2018-2028)

-2018-2020: The Ego Years (Upheaval): 2018- 52 completed weekly collages. 2019-2020- Larger canvases containing month-long spans of headlines, expanding the scope and scale of the archive.

-2021-2024: The Awakening Years (The Shift, No Headlines): Works in development explore the inner and outer consequences of constant noise and division revealing the weight left in their wake and the decision to choose essence over ego.

-2025-2028: The Return of Ego Years (Dual Worlds): With Trump’s re-election in 2024, chaos and division returned louder than ever. To complete the archive, I returned to documenting the headlines, but the work itself had to evolve. I had changed, and the art reflects that change. No longer only reactive, it weaves symbols of hope and resilience through the noise.

Exhibition Timeline

2026- Soft Launch Exhibition: The first major exhibition will open in 2026, showing the complete 2018 archive alongside one representative work from each subsequent year. This will introduce audiences to the project’s arc and invite reflection in the middle of a pivotal U.S. election year, when questions of democracy, division and resilience will again be front of mind.

2028- Final Exhibition: The completed ten-year archive will be exhibited in 2028 featuring approximately 100 pieces. This closing exhibition, again in an election year, will place the full body of work in dialogue with the social and political climate of the moment. Visitors will not only see how the past decade unfolded, but will also confront their own choices in real time, as history repeats and new futures are decided.

Support Needed

Completing From Ego to Essence requires full-time commitment. With funding, I will finish the remaining pieces, prepare the series for exhibition, and ensure its long-term preservation in a public or institutional collection. I am also seeking aligned collaborators, curators, cultural institutions, thought leaders and visionary partners to help bring this archive into public view and cultural conversations. This includes exhibitions, and other immersive experiences where shared memory can become a site of reflection, connection and healing.

This body of work is not the endpoint, it is the origin of a larger ecosystem: conversations, courses, a potential docuseries. Tools for collective processing through story. The exhibit is just the beginning.

If this resonates, I’d love to connect. There’s far more to this vision than I can share here and I’d be honored to talk with you about it.

Let’s Connect:
Helen Hamblin
HH.HelenHamblin@gmail.com