ONE of Canberra’s most hardworking artists has been acknowledged in recent weeks through two very public acquisitions of her work.

Helen S. Tiernan’s work,  “Colonial Wallpapers – wealth opportunity abundance” has been acquired for the Parliament House Collection, while her poignant comment on the National Arboretum site, “Fire Tracks, National Arboretum”, has been acquired for the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Collection.

Tiernan, a graduate of the ANU’s School of Art and a busy curator, volunteer guide, participant in the local community, and on staff at the Museum, has lived in Canberra since 1997. Born in Gippsland of Aboriginal and Irish descent, she has long been an active member of this town’s art scene and has exhibited her work at the School of Art Gallery, M16 Art Space, the Italo-Australia Club, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, the National Museum of Australia and many other places.

Her commissions include a wall mural for Gilmore Primary School and a pole for a public art project at the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Centre.

Speaking of the Legislative Assembly acquisition, Tiernan told “CityNews”: “I knew I wanted to focus on the arboretum… it’s the most obvious example of the tension between Aboriginal and western ideas of land management I see daily from the Tuggeranong freeway [she lives in Chapman].”

Gammage said in opening her 2014-15 solo exhibition at Adrian Newstead’s Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery in Bondi: “She does depict specific places, mostly around Canberra, but beyond that she expresses the idea of a made landscape, surely something the people of 1788 would have appreciated.”

Tiernan said news of the acquisitions had left her thinking her art would be “a legacy for my kids”. But one of her friends put it much better, telling her: “Well, girl, you’re going to go down in history now.”

Disclaimer: Helen Musa is a member of the Speaker’s Art Advisory Committee for the ACT Legislative Assembly.