Kindred spirits combine for art show

SANDPOINT - After more than three decades of teaching art, Charlotte W. Bond is doing something she's had to put off for a long time - making art of her own.

Several generations of children benefited from her work in the Illinois public school system before Bond moved from the classroom to the art studio to concentrate on her paintings and original block prints. 

Starting on Sept. 25, her works will hang alongside those of Sandpoint artist Diana M. Schuppel in a two-person gallery event at the Common Knowledge Bookstore & Tea House titled the Kindred Spirits Art Show.

"We're really going to load it up with work," said Bond, whose pieces will include paintings and large block prints depicting what she called "the poetic moods of nature."

"This is going to be a very full art show, with plenty to ponder and enjoy," Schuppel agreed.  "But it's mostly about two new artist friends sharing a space."

The two women met by accident, when Bond spotted the telltale signs of a fellow artist across the lobby of a local bank.

"I had paint all over my clothes and hands and she came up to me and asked, 'Excuse me - are you a painter?'" Schuppel recalled.

The artists stayed in touch, shared thoughts about the creative process and decided that their similar outlooks and complementary styles would fit well in a joint showing.  Rather than segregating their work, they plan to intermix and combine them based on thematic areas and color schemes, Bond said.

"We're each going to hang a lot of artwork because we both have a lot to share and so much we want to say," she added.

Along with several paintings, Schuppel will be displaying large-format panels from her recently completed commission for the Priest River Chamber of Commerce.  The project, which took 18 months to finish, is currently being installed as a quarter-mile long mural that shows a century of logging over the face of 158 painted boards ranging from two to eight feet in height.

The Kindred Spirits Art Show marks an artistic coming-out party for Bond, whose studio has been the center of a creative explosion since she made the move from teaching to life as a full-time artist.

"Being with the children inspired me and gave me ideas for things I wanted to try later on," she said.  "And my head is still full of things I want to do."

It was her introduction to oil painting in elementary school that grabbed the artist's attention at an early age and never let go.  She returned the favor over the course of 32 years in public schools, where she worked with students in every medium imaginable.

As a practicing professional artist, Bond has elected to spend most of her time carving the images for her hand-created block prints and working in oils and acrylics on canvas.

"I concentrate on those two because they're my favorites, but also because there's only so much time and, at some point, you have to choose what you're going to do," she said.  "I think having such a rich experience as a child helped me teach art.  And it has carried over to what I'm doing now - making art."

The Kindred Spirits Art Show will open Thursday with an artists' reception from 3:30-6:30 p.m. at the Common Knowledge Bookstore & Tea House, located at 823 Main St. in Sandpoint.