Meet the artist: Helen Dardik

Helen Dardik is a professional illustrator, painter, and surface pattern designer based in Ottawa, Canada. She has a degree in graphic design.

Bursting with color, whimsy, and flowers, Helen Dardik’s work introduces a cast of bold characters to welcome us into her world. She describes her art style as “vibrant, folksy, playful toomuchery”.

Throughout the MoxieBox Art lesson, Whimsical World of Helen Dardik, students interact with her work, explore her creative process, and experiment with her favorite medium— gouache!

Dardik describes having a Rolodex in her mind that’s filled with pictures of things she knows and loves. She has been collecting mind pictures her entire life.

Taking a deeper look at her work, we became curious about the type of pictures she might have “saved” in her mind rolodex. 

Dardik works in a stream of consciousness. She begins by illustrating something she knows and loves. Maybe that first illustration is a character. While she’s working, she starts building a story about what is happening to her character and in the rest of her picture, asking herself things like:

• How is this character feeling?

• What are they doing?

• Where are they going?

• Do they need a friend?

Every choice she makes influences the next, and the next, and the next until she’s built various choices into a whole story.

Getting to know the artist

Helen believes that we become more and more ourselves as we get older. She encourages students to remember that what we like will change as we grow, and that’s okay! 

Her whimsical work has been shaped by the story of her life. 

Check out these fun facts about her, and make sure to spend a moment viewing her art.

Can you spot her influences?

A Picture Person

Helen is dyslexic, which made reading as a child difficult. She loved Scandinavian fairy tales and became really good at reading pictures. The details became clues about what was happening in the story. Patterned wallpaper with “lots to look at” kept her mind busy. A lot of her time as a child was spent drawing! Later, she earned a degree in graphic design.

“You learn much more when you make mistakes. If you get it perfect, what are you going to do next time?”

Building Confidence

Curious to stretch your or your students’ confidence in art? Helen has been there, and offered some grounded advice. 

“Don’t feel sorry for the art supplies- use them!”  Try new things, experiment, and learn what you like best!

“One thing will invite the next thing.” When making art, just get started. Begin with what you know and love.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so is perfection.”  Be kind to yourself. It’s okay to take a break, put it away, and revisit it later with fresh eyes.

“You have to be your biggest cheerleader.”  Make YOURSELF proud!

Helen's artwork and techniques are the inspiration for an upcoming art kit, created by MoxieBox product designer, Ashley McKee, entitled the "Whimsical World of Helen Dardik", available early 2026.

“EXERCISE IMAGINATION! The more you use it, the better you get at it!”

- Helen Dardik

By Ashley McKee