Arizona Artist a Day: Day 325:Charmagne Coe

Charmagne Coe is a surrealist from Arizona. She earned a minor in art, a BA in elementary education at Northern Arizona University and is also self-taught. Charmagne creates paintings and drawings with watercolor, ink and pastel in the genre she calls “expressive surrealism”. In each work, characters and atmospheres-in-flux collide, entwine and are inseparably relational. The works contain elements extracted from memories, daily life, mythology, encounters in nature, spiritual questioning, and elements that are a mystery to her but feel right. Her paintings are mostly concerned with connectedness, both on a micro and macro level; she approaches this topic with hope and vulnerability. Historically, surrealism has been acknowledged as a genre, or a channel by which to arrive at the subconscious, sometimes portraying discordant, dream-like images. Similarly and differently, in surrealism, Charmagne explores how components in her works emerge and merge to become, or lay bare that they are part of an integrated whole structure. The real within the surreal. Her current work continues her interest in connectedness into themes of universality and holism. She seeks for her art to express organic, though sometimes not obvious, equilibrium.

Charmagne has presented artwork in international solo and group exhibitions. Her work has also been included in several publications such as Utne Reader, Luxe Interiors + Design and Michaels Meadow’s Viriditas: An Anthology of Contemporary Women Artists. She also enjoys writing free verse poetry, and is sometimes a contributing artist and writer for literary arts journals. Most recently, she exhibited in downtown Phoenix at {9}The Gallery, and is a member of the creative group, Ladies Who Paint, who regularly exhibit at The Artery. She will have a solo exhibition at Royse Contemporary Gallery in Downtown Scottsdale called "Pan Door." It is a show of her expressive surreal drawings and paintings. Opening Reception is on January 11th, 5PM-10PM. It will continue to Feb. 3rd.

Charmagne Coe lives in Scottsdale, Arizona where she works in her home studio. Go to http://charmagnecoe.com for a complete CV, portfolio of recent projects and upcoming exhibitions.

http://charmagnecoe.com