Charla works with natural coastal materials as well as hand-built clay forms, crystal geodes, and sea fossils to create pieces that explore the complexities of nature through the construction and layering of complex surfaces, usually presenting as framed mosaics.

 

Starting from a set point on a cedar wood frame, Charla works with these forms organically, never knowing exactly how they will spread out and take shape. Ultimately, the shapes allude to organisms such as algae, kelp, coral, and other sea life, but the finished pieces are always her own interpretation. The hope is that viewers bring their own ideas and emotions to these abstract pieces, informed by special moments they have experienced in nature or by the sea.

 

Charla earned an Associate of Arts degree in Fine Art at Santa Monica College and a double Bachelor of Arts degree (Art History and English Literature) at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles,CA). She has supported the arts in various capacities over the years, including volunteer docent services for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Above all else, she attributes her years of scuba diving and environmental volunteerism to her growing reverence for ocean life and its preservation. 

 

While residing in Los Angeles, Charla exhibited her work at Segil Fine Art Gallery in old town Monrovia, CA, and at pop up art galleries and art shows in Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, CA. Currently, her work hangs in shops and boutiques along the central coast of California, where she now resides.