King Charlotte

Article by Kathleen Hay
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March 11, 2009

Mohawk artist Charlotte King has found inspiration in art throughout her life. The Snye resident captured first place in oil painting for her piece " Waiting for the Prize" but she's only happy with her painting when she personally captures a certain twinkle in the eye of those she paints.

Charlotte King seeks to capture inner beauty. A first prize winner in the 2009 Massena Artists Association annual juried exhibition, her oil painting "Waiting for the Prize" is a large format canvas of male traditional powwow dancers standing in a semi-circle. The colour and majesty of the moment not only speaks to her heritage, but to the Mohawk artist's own heart.

"My people are so gorgeous," she says. "When I look at them, I think how beautiful they are, whether they are young or old." It's an inner beauty I don't even think they know they have." It's this intangible quality King strives to achieve in her paintings. Even when not in front of an easel, but with other Mohawks no matter the setting, her eyes can't help but focus on this.

"It's hard to explain," continued King, pausing to find the words herself. "Even people say; 'What makes you Indian?' "It's so hard to grab . . . it's an energy you see or feel."

Canvases - some completed, other still a work-in-progress - fill the living room of the Snye woman's home. She had originally set up her studio in the basement, however the light is much better upstairs, she explains. Paintings she's done of her late father, an interpretation of a friend's dream, an abstract of beadwork, adorn the walls. "I was thrilled to receive this first place prize," said King. "I've embraced the idea that artists need to promote themselves, so I've been entering as many shows as possible to get a higher level of name recognition and sell more of my work."

King has been interested in art since she was a student at General Vanier Secondary School. "In those days, you either became a nurse or a secretary," she laughed, adding that an art teacher at GVSS encouraged her to pursue her dream. "I thought, Why not?" so I went to Sheridan College, in Oakville, to study art.

"The city really wasn't for me, so when I came home at Christmas, I switched to St. Lawrence College's fine arts program, in Cornwall." Her next years were spent raising a family of five children, but in 1990 she started painting again. Two years later she entered the Mohawk '92 show in Montreal, and was later invited to submit entries into shows in Pointe Claire and Ottawa.

"I really wanted that piece of paper though," laughed King. "I wanted my degree. "So I decided to go back to school in 2005." She began attending SUNY Potsdam that same year. Last December, she achieved her dream when she graduated with her bachelor's degree - but not before she couldn't resist the opportunity to further her education even more at the renowned Institute of Indian Indian Art in Santa Fe, NM.

"I wanted to finish off my semester in Santa Fe, but I wasn't sure," she recalled. "I talked to my family about it, and my youngest daughter, Autumn, and they told me to go for it. "It was an adventure!"

King had never hauled anything before in her life, but when a van and hitch filled, she and Autumn (now a GVIS student), their two dogs and three cats, headed off to New Mexico. "We just did it," states King. "It's really strange how thing around. Before I even went to Sheridan, I'd looked around schools and I'd heard of the Institute. "I'd missed it before, why not doing it now?"

Her primary inspiration has been native women and the Mohawk's culture. Mostly, she works in oils, but does some lithography and prints. As well as having "Waiting for the Prize" accepted into the juried show, another oil, "On One Hemisphere", was accept Three other oils on canvas - Women's Dance 1, Women's and Basket Dancers - were selected for the recent Cornwall Art Gallery juried show. Lat year, in November and Dec King will have a solo exhibit at CRAG.

Painting gives King a satisfaction that has never left her over the years. "It's just me and the colours, the canvas. It's going back to started from in school, but I had my family in-between. You have to have a balance, it's something you need and painting is mine," King said.