Born in New York City where she remained active, Helen Sloan was a painter, writer, teacher and theater set and costume designer. She graduated from The Brearley School in 1929 and then studied at the Art Students League with John Sloan, Harry Wickey, Charles Locke and Boardman Robinson. She took anatomy classes at Cornell University Medical School, studied weaving, pottery, metalwork, wood carving and jewelry making at the Craft Students League, and then made four study trips to Europe between 1927 and 1936.

In 1944, she married John Sloan, whose writings on the philosophy of art she had edited and who had been her teacher. From 1940 to 1944, she was director of the Society of Independent Artists and ent...