About
Hello, I’m Helena — an illustrator, writer, and storyteller with a deep love for the outdoors and a background in science.
I grew up on a farm in northern Germany, where much of my childhood was spent either building treehouses or filling sketchbooks with drawings. That early pull toward creativity never left — it just evolved.
Over the years, I’ve explored many ways of expressing it: through painting, filmmaking, writing, and, more recently, science communication. I studied Molecular Biology in Salzburg, driven by a fascination with the natural world and a deep desire to understand how things work.
But alongside the pipettes and papers, I’ve always returned to my creative roots.
I tell stories — in images, in words, and in the in-between spaces where intuition meets information.
My work is guided by curiosity, emotion, and a longing to connect. Whether I’m illustrating a scene from a long-distance hike, writing about hormones, or sharing a quiet moment on film, I try to capture what’s real — the tender, the wild, the complex.
Now, I’m building a path that combines my passions: creating art, communicating science, and telling honest, human stories — ideally outside, under an open sky.
science communication
I love diving into complex topics, unraveling the patterns beneath the surface, and then reshaping that understanding into something clear, visual, and emotionally resonant.
To me, science communication is about making knowledge accessible beyond institutions — not by oversimplifying it, but by translating it into stories, images, and metaphors that spark curiosity.
I want people to feel the wonder behind the natural world, the relevance of research in daily life, the quiet poetry of a molecule doing its job.
With a background in molecular biology and a passion for visual storytelling, I aim to bridge the gap between scientific insight and human experience. Whether through illustrations, writing, or short videos, I want to help people not just learn something new
— but feel connected to it.
the wilderness
There’s something about being outside for days, weeks, or even months. Moving through ever-changing landscapes with everything you need on your back. Out there, surrounded by mountains, forests, and sky, my thoughts unfold differently. Once I start walking, I think about what I need to think about.
In 2024, I thru-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, walking over 4200 km from Canada to Mexico. It was the scariest and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever done. The trail stripped things down to the very essentials – in more ways than one – and I found parts of myself I hadn’t met before.
For me, being in the wilderness isn’t about escaping real life. It’s about returning to it. The trail gives me uninterrupted time to think, to feel, and to reconnect with what matters. It also fuels much of my creative work — the colors, the textures, the stories I tell all carry a piece of that wide-open freedom.
Doing quasi-risky-things in remote locations is how my brain makes feel-good-juice!
The most courageous way to keep loving and living is to remain a student
– unknown
The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.
– Molière
“We need the tonic of wildness…
John Muir
At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable.
We can never have enough of nature.”