For Seniors : For This Artist, Angels Became Her Calling Card

The angels have figuratively spoken.

Helen Jeffrey always knew what they would say--that she should enrich the lives of others through art. For most of her 75 years, she had neither the time nor opportunity to live her childhood dream. But all that has changed. Through her work, the angels speak to everyone now.

With no formal training other than some senior citizen art classes she took when she retired four years ago, Jeffrey created a series of angel cards that were an instant success. Each individually made card was a watercolor rendition of a spirited angel strutting forward wearing golden high-heeled shoes.

Though you can tell by the halo and wings it’s an angel, there’s no doubt it’s a Jeffrey angel. The wit, charm and mischief she brings to them is distinctive.

After the angels, she experimented with colorful fabrics and created “Sisters With an Attitude”--note cards depicting African American women in sassy poses wearing traditional African dresses. “The older folks like the ones wearing longer dresses, the younger people like the shorts ones,” she said.

What was once a hobby for Jeffrey, a retired real estate broker, is turning into a cottage industry. Each handmade card sells for $3. “This past Christmas a friend of mine asked me to create some Christmas cards with angels on them but she said all her friends were white so they had to be white angels,” she said, laughing. “I had a hard time with that order.”

A native Angeleno, Jeffrey is the granddaughter of a slave and the child of a strong woman who taught her never to give up her dreams. “You have to have a goal and work toward it. My mother always told me I’d be strong and healthy and could do anything in life,” she said.

That strength supported her when she confronted racism in childhood. “I thought I’d be accepted, but I wasn’t, and it was a blow to me. I’ll never forget how I was diminished by it, but I had to work through it and go back to what I was taught. I felt resentment but not hatred--more bewilderment than anything. I’ll never understand it,” she said.

Jeffrey and her husband, Earl, also an artist, live in a modest West Adams home surrounded by their work and a 20-year collection of angels. They’ve been married twice to one another. “We were sick of each another and stayed apart for 10 years,” she said.

“I was on my deathbed and she came to see me,” said Earl, “and I knew she was a nice person.”

While Jeffrey is pleased that her angels and her “Sisters With an Attitude” work is well-received, she sees it more as a means to support her other works. Jeffrey is determined to become a master watercolorist. She also wants to visit Europe again, but this time with the eyes of an artist.

She likes to work in pastels and will submit a piece titled “Granny’s Reading Lesson” to an art competition that will part of a tribute to elders during the annual Artist’s Salute to Black History Month. The exhibit will be on display at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping center Feb. 4-12.

A compilation of Jeffrey’s works is also on display at Mahogany Galleries, 7259 Melrose Ave.

As for the angels, she believes people are getting into a spiritual mode--not God, necessarily--but on the path to God. A path she knows well.

For information on the Artist’s Salute to Black History Month at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, call (213) 939 0250.