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Helen Blumenstiel was born in 1899 in Rochester NY. She received formal education on the east coast, attending university in Rochester as well as Grand Central School of Art. She studied abroad from 1929 to 1930 at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts - Fontainebleau. After renturning to the United States, Blumenstiel secured employment with the Works Progress Administration. In 1937, she came to Salem, Oregon to teach at the Federal Art Center.

In 1943 Blumenstiel purchased a farm in Oregon. Three years later she began teaching at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon--returning in 1952 to work as head of the Art department. She retired from teaching in 1965 at the age of 66. Her work has been exhibited at the Portland and Seattle Art Museums, and Willamette University. Blumenstiel passed away in 1975. A retrospective of her work was shown at the Bush Barn in Salem, Oregon in 1976.

Stella Douglas was an artist and social activist, born in Salem, Oregon in 1927. She received both her Bachelors degree and Masters degree from the San Francisco Art Institute before going on to work as an art therapist with several public and private institutions. In 1975 she served as co-curator of a retrospective exhibit on Helen Blumenstiel put on by the Bush Barn Art Center in Salem. Douglas died on October 15, 1993.