Daily Inspiration: Meet Helen Westerman

Today we’d like to introduce you to Helen Westerman.

Helen, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a 24-year-old artist and architectural designer living in Boulder. I moved here after graduating from architecture school amid the pandemic in 2020 and it’s been a dream come true. I’ve fought hard to live in a way that inspires me every day after having battled Lyme disease for most of my life. Growing up with chronic illness like that is a war on all fronts; physically, mentally, spiritually. And there have been many times I nearly didn’t make it. Having experiences like that at such a young age has made me so immensely grateful for my life. When I was at my sickest, I dreamt of the life I’m living today and it’s rarely lost on me how magical that is.

I’m a huge believer in following what ignites your excitement because I’ve lived first-hand how life is way too short for anything less. By some miracle, I fought my way through design school which, if you ask anyone, the associated studio culture is not very conducive to life. Here I was met with an impossible problem; I was instilled with the idea that my designs needed overworked late nights and simultaneously that my body would not withstand a breeze. From here I realized that the art of life is a design problem and just like any creative act, I had the power to make intentional decisions surrounding my constraints. So, I made my work about the art of designing a life well lived and I really haven’t looked back. Don’t like where you are? Move. Don’t like the thoughts running in your head? Give them a big ol’ hug and let them go. Feeling that urge to create? Make the damn thing.

As any creative person will tell you, in the making of anything there always comes that ‘uh oh’ moment where your doubt comes to stop you. Becoming proficient at design is becoming familiar with those moments and how to ease them out of your way. It’s the same process for designing your life. Getting good at accepting and walking past doubt and fear has opened up worlds of possibility for me. That’s not to say that it’s easy or without fail, it’s more about accepting all of life as a whole and doing with it what you can. Even within my worst experiences, there have been grains of beautiful truth, and after healing it’s the beauty and the truth I’ve walked away with.

In short, I’m a life designer for myself first and that lends me to a lot of other creative work as well.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It’s been anything but smooth! The road to get here has been absolutely wild. I’ve been sick for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of having a migraine or not being able to stay awake and not being able to communicate what it felt like with anyone who understood.

I grew up in small-town Virginia mostly running around outside and getting into trouble. The Lyme escalated quickly in high school; I went from being a super active athlete to barely being able to eat. My body rejected life so thoroughly. It was heartbreaking, and no one knew why for several years. I was hopeless for a long time. I spent my freshman year of college enduring intensive treatments for Lyme disease, recovering from sexual assault, and fighting debilitating depression. Nothing was easy and the world made no sense to me.

I kept going when I didn’t think I could in a huge part due to my support system but also because I relentlessly sought out joy. There were very few days you wouldn’t find me laughing about something. It actually is the greatest medicine. Even when I could hardly walk a mile, I was able to travel and experience amazing places like Hong Kong, go all over Europe, and study in central Mexico. This wasn’t because I felt great, was happy all the time, or traveling was the easy thing to do. It was the scariest and most exciting, therefore the most fulfilling, and it still brings me so much joy.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
When I first moved out to Boulder from Virginia last year, I found work by freelancing web and brand design while creating commissioned art. I loved this workflow for its flexibility but I started to lose my joy for painting in the commissions, so I transitioned into architecture part-time in the spring while wrapping up my freelance jobs. Now I work most of my week designing architecture and rendering visuals which has been the perfect balance of challenging and fun. Sprinkled throughout, I’m making art for the joy of it and taking on a few photography projects here and there. I spend a good amount of time traveling and adventuring around Colorado with friends taking pictures and laughing a lot which I consider an essential part of my job as a human.

I’m most proud of being willing and able to follow my curiosity over this past year. I’ve intentionally kept my work super-diverse while I feel into what brings the most fulfilling process for me. I thoroughly believe that how you spend your time on the way to where you’re going is how you spend your life, so I’m in no hurry to limit my possibilities to what I can conjure to mind right now. I know that as I grow, so will my imagination and my potential along with it.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, success is embracing life fully without expectation and pushing my imagination past what I know. Some days that looks like riding the high from presenting a multi-million-dollar marketing package and other days it’s having a good, long cry with someone I love. It is always about doing the hard and rewarding thing with that childlike joy and wonder because that is what freedom feels like to me. It’s rarely easy but always wildly fulfilling.

Contact Info:

• Email: helenwestco@gmail.com
• Website: helenwest.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/__helenwest/