Helen Mae Enoch Gleiforst was born on February 10, 1903, in Crete, Nebraska. She was an American painter known for her plein-air landscapes and vibrant floral still lifes. She spent her early childhood in the Midwest before her family moved briefly to San Diego, California, and then to Eugene, Oregon, in 1918. She briefly attended the University of Oregon around 1920, but her father's health issues prompted the family's return to Southern California.

In 1923, she married realtor Fred Gleiforst and settled in Beverly Hills, where she began painting and drawing in the late 1920s. Gleiforst studied under notable instructors, including Nicolai Fechin, George Melcher, and John Hubbard Rich. Landscape painter Dedrick Stuber and floral specialist Nell Walker Warner (with whom she studied in the 1940s on the Monterey Peninsula) particularly influenced her work.

By the mid-1930s, she had established a local reputation in the Los Angeles area, and her artworks were frequently featured in one-person exhibitions at venues such as the Ebell Society in Beverly Hills and the Westwood Women's Club, among other local spaces. She also presented a solo show at Stanford University in the 1950s. After her husband's retirement in 1960, she traveled extensively throughout California, producing many plein-air landscapes. Gleiforst's paintings, often characterized by rich color and a sensitive handling of light, remain treasured in private collections worldwide. In the 1980s, some health issues forced her to stop painting, and on May 28, 1997, she passed away in Los Angeles, at the age of 94.