Visual and performing arts are the common languages prevalent among many cultures. These, coupled with my reflections and family influences, birthed my painting series “From Stories of My America”.

From the year 2000, I visually documented the essence of my cultures, culminating in a three year traveling exhibition of which the signature piece, Give Those Yeast Rolls Time to Rise, was directly related to my familial experiences. These works were representative of not only my life story, but the stories in the lives of people across the country and beyond. No ambiguity in my intent or subject. Because of its semblances the exhibition became the catalyst for the The High Museum workshop I conducted where I was asked to compare my work to that of the Harlem Renaissance artist, Jacob Lawrence. The “Stories of My America” exhibition premiered at Atlanta’s Hammonds House Museum in 2002, and was exhibited in eight museums and fine art galleries across the south; the Historic Beach Institute in Savannah, The Rosa Parks Museum, in Montgomery, Penn Center in St. Helena Island, and Fine Arts Academy, Shreveport, LA among them. Gullah Rhythms was displayed in the Kente’ Exhibition at The Marco Carlos Museum. By the close of the exhibition tour I began my transition, fulfilling a career-long desire to move beyond the obvious and explore new depths in my work. Because I found the enigma of “abstraction” compelling albeit a bit overwhelming, I sought the expertise of two of the country’s most stellar artists. Change, after an established thirty year career, has been challenging. The walk of faith I have taken, on this journey of transition into this new genre, has been daunting, but it has also been exciting and rewarding.

I admired the works of the 20th century Expressionist painters. I would occasionally explore the realm of nonrepresentational imagery in my earlier paintings. What I did not realize at the time, was that the language I needed to create this new body of work, was already embedded in the unique rhythmic strokes and style of my representational images.

The traditional definition of abstract art: Abstract art is purely non-objective and non-representational; it does not depict the reality of specific objects. At its inception, this genre’s movement redefined what art is and began breaking all of the traditional rules of art. Artists began leaving out information, splattering paint, texturing the surfaces, using fewer strokes and bolder colors. I think that it is the “rule breaking” that initiated the “conceptual” or “Abstract” art movement, creating the contrasting perspectives and inspired illusions. I depend on the wonders of nature to supply many of the patterns and designs present in my work and believe that colors, shapes and depths have their own rhythm, weight and importance in art. We can often find the story in music. Representational art is like music with words and abstraction reminiscent of “Blues blue” and “magenta Jazz”. They are often based on a theme that takes on different forms or a spiritual experience. In my incorporation of as many of our senses as possible into my paintings, many often speak of the ability to hear my paintings, the rhythms that glide across the canvas, resonating in the melodic tunes embodied within the intensity of the colors, the strength of the lines and boldness of the strokes. It is a common belief that ancient African cultures feared the elements, but in fact, African peoples trust in the continuity of nature, its unchanging cycle of seasons and the succession of day and night. The symbols used to communicate messages within the living world and serve as a link to our ancestors and the supernatural world are, to the untrained eye, abstract in nature. I believe that there are many ways to tell our history.

This genre — and its “stories” is one of them – has been around for centuries. It is interesting that the viewing public, especially those familiar with my prior works, constantly try to find the stories and recognizable imagery in my abstract paintings. They are pleased if their imagination discovers a face or an animal of sorts. What I have deduced, as an abstract artist, is that it takes an entirely different perception and an openness of the imagination to understand the work and to appreciate it on a deeper level. Because many of the stories in my “Stories” series came from complete strangers, it was the space between the story given me and the way I received it that determined the degree of realism or abstraction I incorporated into the painting. With these conceptual works, the beginning and the end of the story are the same. These paintings take a journey through my soul on the way to the canvas, where they are cultivated and materialize. I am going to ask you as the viewer to take it all in, not necessarily expecting to understand the work immediately, but to take the time to appreciate the essence, created by the textures, lines, strokes, and compositions. And in interpreting the depth of my emotional awareness as an artist, we together just might reach a new level of understanding of this abstract genre. It is after all, the language that I am currently choosing to dare broach the world of the conceptual unknown.

For the best art viewing experience, including priced works for sale, see Charlotte Riley-Webb’s work in the main gallery

Armed with strong cultural values instilled in her by her parents and grandparents who had lived in the south, Charlotte acquired the desire to document and share that culture through art at an early age. Her career was built on a good basic educational foundation which she obtained in the public school system of Cleveland, Ohio and earned her B.F.A. degree from The Cleveland Institute of Art. She began her M.F.A. at Georgia State University, screen printing at The Atlanta College of Art, mono-printing and abstract art at Tougaloo College, MS. Charlotte visually documented the essence of her culture in her three year traveling exhibition, “From Stories of My America”. She also used it as a springboard for The High Museum workshop where she was asked to compare her work to that of Jacob Lawrence. Premiering at Atlanta’s Hammonds House, the Stories exhibition has shown in nine different museums and fine art galleries, traveling to the Historic Beach Institute in Savannah, The Rosa Parks Museum, in Montgomery and The Penn Center, at St. Helena Island among them. “Gullah Rhythms”, a painting from the tour, was also displayed as a part of the Kente’ exhibition at The Marco Carlos Museum in Atlanta.

Over the years her venues extended across the country and beyond the states to include Surinam, South America and Anguilla, British West Indies. Webb’s work is included in numerous, private, business and corporate collections. The most recent public works installations were Faces and Phases of Fulton , a painting installed in the Fulton County Public Service office in Atlanta and the installation of her collaborative new medium, “sculpted paintings” which she creates with her sculptor husband, Lucious. The couple installed an outdoor public work in the concert district of downtown Hampton, VA for which they were awarded The Hampton Arts Commission Award of Excellence and their piece, “Sounds of Perpetual Spring”, was voted as the city’s People’s Choice Purchase Award for their permanent collection.

Among her many awards and accomplishments, Charlotte has been the recipient of several Georgia Council and Bureau of Cultural Affairs grants which she used primarily to fund her 13 year volunteer senior citizen art classes and installation of an art gallery for the work. Charlotte was one of 14 artists nationally to receive the Absolut Vodka’s Heritage Award resulting in the commission and six city national tours Contemporary realistic with an abstract flair, Charlotte’s style easily translated into the illustrations for two children’s books Rent Party Jazz and Sweet Potato Pie, for New York publisher, Lee and Low. She has also recently completed the paintings for Entrance Place of Wonders, a third children’s book based on poems from the Harlem Renaissance for publisher, Harry Abrams Books.

An evolution of study, growth and expansion has led Charlotte to her new and present genre. She began working in “abstract art” with stellar abstract artist and 2004 Vander zee award winner, Moe Brooker of Philadelphia a few years ago and again in “encaustic” the summer of 2004. She also learned John T. Scott’s, of New Orleans, hand-made wax paper printing process after studying with him in 2003. These opportunities aided her in finding her own “abstract niche” and helped propel the career which she had been hinging on for many years even in her figurative works. Her abstract accomplishments were recently acknowledged with her “Best of Show Award” in the AAFTA Holiday Exhibition 2004, and “New Power Generation 2005″ National Exhibition, at the Hampton Museum in Virginia where she was awarded the John T. Biggers’ Award for her pastel work “Integrating Life”. Charlotte also received the first place award for works on paper at the 2005 Southern Roots Exhibit at the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham; AL. Recently voted into the oldest most prestigious organization of women artists, The National Association of Women Artists, NY. She has received a September 2005 fellowship to The Hambidge Art Center and the Women’s Studio Workshop in New York in January 2006 where Charlotte looks forward to translating the abstract images into silkscreen prints. Kandinsky says that “Abstract art places a new world, which on the surface has nothing to do with “reality”, next to the “real” world. Deeper down, it is subject to the common laws of the ‘cosmic world.’ And so a “new world of art” is juxtaposed to the “world of nature.” Charlotte believes that colors and shapes have their own rhythm, “weight” or importance in a painting. She has woven these shapes and colors into compositions which she calls “Earth Tunes”, which she feels are as valid, and have as much emotional power as music. Her exhibition, “Transcendence of Earth Tunes”, will debut her abstract work in a one person exhibition at the Apex Museum during the NBAF in Atlanta, summer 2005.

For the best art viewing experience, including priced works for sale, see Charlotte Riley-Webb’s work in the main gallery