Charlene Huston
Santa Barbara, CA
Charlene is a multimedia artist. Working with fabric, film, paint, found objects, and words, she tells stories about personal, global, or spiritual healing.
Message
Charlene is a Santa Barbara, California based multi-media artist telling stories about the environment and healing - personal or global. She works with fabric, film, paint, found objects and words. As a self-taught children’s book artist, her illustrations present a childlike view of the world, easily accessible to anyone young-at-heart.
Her current work is intensely personal because her beloved partner died during the COVID cloud in 2022, and she processed her grief by attending art and poetry therapy sessions at Hospice of Santa Barbara.
The result of that deep, personal work is three-fold:
- She wrote, produced and hosted a weekly radio show on KCSB.org called:
Good Grief - Talk Radio for the Grieving Soul
- She is now writing a memoir and a libretto for an opera called GOOD GRIEF.
Statement
I'm a storyteller. I've been telling stories with fabric and film for years. Most of my work has to do with healing, personal or global.
As a self-taught children's book artist, my whimsical illustrations present a childlike view of the world, easily accessible to anyone young at heart.
Mary Poppins, Maira Kalman, and people who tell the truth heavily influence me.
I'm based in Santa Barbara, California, yet I love working on location … I take my tools (sewing machine, supplies, watercolors, paper, colored pencils) on the road as often as I can. Being in new places or simply sitting by the sea watching the sun rise or set always inspires me.
I learned to sew when I was very young, and I've loved the process ever since. Stitching something together and watching fabric or felt transform is thrilling to me. I love the process of using materials and tools that transform easily (fabric, felt, film).
I like to make art that helps people heal. I've overcome adversity by making art.
My recent work is very personal and is informed by the fact that my beloved partner died of COVID-19 in 2022. Since then, by way of healing and dealing with this loss, I'm creating a new body of work that is about the mystery of death. It's called Good Grief.