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Born in Nashville, TN
​Charlotte’s formal training at Western Kentucky University earned her a B.A. in Art History with a minor in Studio Art. Continuing on at WKU, Charlotte earned her M. A. In Folk Studies, concentrating in Historic Preservation. Charlotte’s formal training and education included a heavy concentration in abstract expressionism blended with a deep connection to the past. In her work, one can readily experience this tension between the discipline required to adhere to tradition and and the liberation of novelty, the struggle to stretch the old with the new, and thereby draw the past into the present, asking the viewer to consider questions about transformation and rebellion. This past-present-future tension ensures a timeless quality to Charlotte’s work, which is both compelling and exciting.
​To understand Charlotte Brindley as an artist, one need only look to Carl Jung’s famous description of The Artist as archetype. He writes, “Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes [her] its instrument. It is a relentless compulsion that allows for no rest and in many
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ways consumes the energy and strength of the artist as [s]he produces the work. ... The artist must do the work. If [s]he refuses to be engaged, it will eat at [her] and cause [her] to be restless and unfulfilled. In the end it is not [her] choice.” Jung adds, “Although the artist appears as an outsider traditionally, [s]he has the ability to tap into those images that need to be expressed at a particular moment in time.”
Charlotte Brindley embodies Jung’s description in a way few artists do. If you ask her she will tell you that for her being an artist is the only way of existing, and that there is no path forward for her that does not include creating and manifesting the work. Furthermore, she will tell you art is in her bones, hardwired in her DNA, and cultivated in a childhood home that not only encouraged her skill development, but also fed her vibrant imagination. With a father who was a successful artist in his own right and keen to teach his young daughter his skills, Charlotte also grew up with a Mother, an imaginative creatrix in her own right, who taught Charlotte to lean in with bravery, and embrace her imagination with love and abandon, allowing it to liberate her work from the confines of instruction and social expectation.
Just being in her company, and especially when viewing her work, one can feel the otherworldliness Jung alludes to in referring to the artist as “outsider”. When you are with Charlotte, there is often a felt-sense (not in the head, but in the gut) that she is not exactly of this world, but rather somehow set apart from everyday folks and common reality. I have often described the feeling I experience in her presence to others as aking to what it must feel like to “see a unicorn”. True to the work she creates, Charlotte’s very being can evoke the feeling that one has stolen a glimpse of the ethereal or magical. In this way, who Charlotte is and the work she creates are one in the same. Like the unicorn, she is not here to fit in or join us, she has an altogether different role to play and her own unique way of playing it.
And, while one can see hints or subtle reflections of the pain of social rejection and isolation played out in her paintings, Charlotte’s images tend to rise to meet any semblance pain or shame with deft tones of defiance, irreverence, wit, and compassion, which allows the viewer to dispassionately consider, if it is better to be rejected and remain “othered” or join cruelty, oppression, and injustice for belonging’s sake alone. Perhaps, isolation is best, perhaps not—either way, the images move us to consider such things. Curiously, this internal strength to endure is mirrored in her process, which involves listening to loud heavy metal music while she creates her presicion-driven, and often delicately feminine works, as if commanding beauty and order out of sheer chaos. In this way, Charlotte’s work challenges us, just as her creation process challenges her, to draw the light from the dark, which is both an act of rebellion and an act of hope.
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Inspired by the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Renaissance masters, Charlotte taught herself the love and discipline to create rich, soft, detailed works. Blended with her inclinations toward the surreal, Charlotte’s work falls nicely into the genres of Magical Realism and Symbolist styles of painting. Her work often juxtaposes themes of beauty and horror, light and dark, strength and weakness, mystery and knowing. It asks questions about loyalty to traditions steeped in oppression, and challenges our notions of the sacred and profane.
Charlotte’s current work, which features the female portrait imbued with social notions of mystery and inner transformation, is a series of paintings that are beautiful, masterful, and deliciously disquieting. Charlotte utilizes the beauty of the natural world, in this case moths and butterflies, to lead the viewer into her paintings with a sense of awe deservedly evoked by the technical skill shown in the work. However, any heaviness of tradition, or any sense of the burden of effort to sustain the kind of patience demanded by the mastery of any skill—all of this is beautifully offset by vibrant and playful colors, chosen it seems to allow a bit of cheeky whimsy—a perfect touch of emotional balance for each piece.
Charlotte’s decision to work with the female form is evidence of her ability to capture the zeitgeist of her age, when America is once again wrestling with notions of gender, equality, and female autonomy. As Jung eluded to in his description, Charlotte is an artist of her time, capable of creating images that challenge traditional thought, that seek to discomfort for the sake of justice and compassion, and that hold out faith that transcendence is not only possible, but that change is the natural condition of all life. It is this faith in becoming expressed in her work that makes Charlotte Brindley such an exciting artist to watch and collect.
No matter how many times, I see her work, I am left feeling a little blown away by the idea that these amazing works of art are crafted in a small comfy studio in right here in my very own home—East Tennessee. Viewing her work is a treat, owning her work is exhilarating, and spending time in her presence is a real privilege never a regret. When it comes to Charlotte Brindley, the only question I keep encountering is, “What is she going to do next?” I can feel the excitement well up within me as I wait impatiently to see her unfolding talent with each new piece. Please consider this your invitation to join me in this worthy endeavor. After all, seeing a unicorn feels pretty darn amazing.
Candice Durman
Marriage & Family Therapist
& East Tennessee Artist