In This Issue

Meet Charlotte
Featured Article
May Special
Question for Charlotte
Just For Fun
May Merchandise

I just love making people smile. My hope is that my art catches people off guard, and makes them laugh in unexpected, silly ways. Much of my art includes animals, and I think by portraying their beauty and devotion in playful ways, it will bring awareness to the need for all of us to take loving care of all the animals in our beautiful world.

Each month, I will answer a question in the hope that it will encourage you, the reader, to expand your awareness of your own artistic nature. Just play and have fun, like you did when you were a child! I will also reveal the story behind my art. For each featured piece, you will learn how the idea came to me, and see the fun I had creating each piece. And I will offer my suggestions for the perfect place in your home or workplace for that piece of art.

I want to encourage you to have fun, and feel free to be playful in life. I truly believe, when we feel happy, we can reach out and share that happiness with each other and with animals. Good things will naturally happen when happy people open their hearts.

Cream and Sugar

In honor of Mother's Day, I've gathered together five of my favorite Mother themed prints.

My most favorite is Cream and Sugar. I think this is an adorable print to hang in a kitchen, or in the coffee area at your workplace. It also makes a great gift for anyone you know who is a big coffee fanatic. My daughter is the one who came up with this title. As is often the case with me, the title came before the painting. I am sort of a cart before the horse kind of gal.

I loved her idea and promised to go right to work on it. I looked at a lot of cows before the right inspiration came to me. Then, one day a little calf was standing near its Mother. I was so struck by the innocence in its eyes. That is what I set out to capture here. The kiss just sweetened the scene.

The other four prints featured this month for Mother’s Day are all dog prints. Whenever possible, I try to put the breed name in the title of my dog paintings. That's how Malted Milk came about. I had several requests for a painting of a Maltese Dog. In thinking of clever titles, Maltese Falcon and Maltese Cross just didn't work. But Malted Milk said puppies and Mom to me.

I had several requests for French Bulldogs, too. The French Bulldog is not a dog you see very often. They look like a cross between a Boston Terrier and a Bulldog. Paintings of this breed are few and far between, so owners of French Bulldogs are always looking for artwork of their breed. I centered on their sweet nature for French Kiss.

Puppies are always irresistible. Lab Results and Golden Nuggets have been two of my most popular prints. Lab Results is a particular favorite with people in the medical field because of the title. It makes a great gift for anyone in that arena, and especially anyone who is in veterinary medicine.

Malted Milk (image size is approximately 8" x10")

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French Kiss (image size is approximately 8" x10")

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Golden Nuggets (image size is approximately 11" x 14")

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Lab Results (image size is approximately 11" x 14")

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Cream and Sugar (image size is approximately 8" x10")

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When you purchase Cream and Sugar with any other of the featured paintings in May, receive $10.00 off at checkout by entering coupon code mommylove.

When you purchase any TWO of this month's featured prints, receive $10.00 off at checkout by entering coupon code mothersday.

Offers not able to be used in combination.

This month’s question for Charlotte: What was your first job as an artist?

I dabbled in art when my children were small, but not consistently. It was just hard to get out the oils and mineral spirits with little ones around. Clean up was a challenge, since I had no studio back then.

After the kids got older though, and were in school during the day, I spent several years as Executive Director of a grant-funded organization called ParkArt. We took art, music and dance into city parks in the disadvantaged areas and taught children creative skills they weren't offered in school. On week days, we took these same classes to Senior Centers and anywhere else that would have us.

One of the senior ladies that came every week was blind, but she had been able to see until she was six years old so she remembered colors. She loved using markers because it gave her some control. She would tell me what color she wanted and then mark the place on her paper with her finger where she wanted me to help her draw. She did bright, joyful drawings of flowers, smiling and humming the whole while. We made one of her drawings into a poster and several businesses in town framed and hung the poster in their lobby.
I took her into Wendy's one day and told her “this is your painting hanging on the wall.” She touched it almost reverently. Though she couldn't actually see it, I knew that was a moment of awe for her. She taught me gratitude.

Teaching art in those days brought me back to my own need to paint. I’ll tell you more about that next issue!

Here’s a cute story for all you mothers and teachers. We are celebrating the love of our mothers this month. Let’s also celebrate all the wonderful Teachers who have blessed the lives of our children. After all, teachers are the closest thing to a surrogate mother for our children. They both deserve to be celebrated this month. Enjoy!

The 'Middle Wife' by an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself,
but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second grade
classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions
with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell
is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of
fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or
limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about
it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid,
takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow
stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant. 'This is Luke, my baby brother, and
I'm going to tell you about his birthday.' 'First, Mom and Dad made him as a
symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke
grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord.' She's
standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and
wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

'Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh,
Oh, Oh!' Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. 'She walked around
the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!' (Now this kid is doing a
hysterical duck walk and groaning.)

'My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't
have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down
in bed like this.' (Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.)

'And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he
got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like
psshhheew!' (This kid has her legs spread with her little hands miming water
flowing away. It was too much!)

'Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe.
They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a
sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all
said it was from Mom 's play-center, (placenta) so there must be a lot of
toys inside there.

When he got out, the middle wife spanked him for crawling up in there.'
Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.
I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell
day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another 'Middle Wife' comes along.

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