Artist Charla Rae Van Vlack calls herself an βexpressive realist.β
At one point, she participated in art shows in Green Valley and Saddlebrooke β waking up early, putting all of her art delicately in the car trying not to damage it, setting it up when she arrived, then taking it all down and heading home.
After two years, Van Vlack decided she didnβt want to do that anymore.
Instead, Van Vlack, who has been an artist for more than 25 years, opened her own brick-and-mortar art gallery in midtown about three years ago.
After spending some time building the gallery and working on advertising, Van Vlack started to get a steady stream of customers.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
βAnd that was the end,β Van Vlack says.
She closed the doors to her gallery at the end of last year.
βIβm still going to do art,β Van Vlack says. βI just have to find another way to get it out there.β
Van Vlackβs art currently ranges from oil paintings of mostly wildlife to mixed media where she takes βordinary things and makes new things out of themβ such as a stainless steel teapot she transformed into a turkey.
βThe one that really started most strangely β there used to be a store in town called Upcycle and they sold bits of this and that to artists,β she says. βI picked up something that I think was supposed to be used to open wine bottles but when I put it in my hands, I knew it was bunny ears.β
βSometimes I just know what itβs going to be as soon as I touch it,β she says.
Van Vlack also creates beaded skulls. Some skulls come from hunting, others come from vendors online.
But theyβre all real β none are replicas.
βI donβt remember exactly how it started. I saw someone online had put mirrors on a skull,β she says, adding that she decided to decorate a skull with beads instead.
βFrom there on, I was hooked.β
As for Van Vlackβs interest in art, it may have been inspired from her mom, who was always supportive in Van Vlackβs creative journey.
βMy mother was very creative,β Van Vlack says. βI think in another time, she wouldβve been an artist.β