Posts Tagged ‘charles jupiter hamilton’

photo by Rebecca Burch

Charles Jupiter  Hamilton is best known for his wild, colorful carved wood paintings.  His style is often compared to Aboriginal Australian art, although his style is uniquely his own.

Early Life
Charles Jupiter Hamilton is a native of North Carolina, born a son of a Hungarian immigrant.  He grew up on a small dairy farm with his mother, brother, and sisters.  He served as a Gunner’s Mate Petty Officer with the U.S. Navy leading his to extensive travels.   His travels have influenced his twenty years of creating art, traveling from India to Central America, around the United States, winding up in West Virginia.   Along with his travels, he went to UNC-Chapel Hill for several years to receive, as he calls it, an “excellent education.”  His work is appreciated all around the world as the focal point of homes, offices, and museums.  His carvings, hand-built sculptures, canvases, and painted wood have won awards at many juried art exhibits around the world.

Inspiration/Admiration
His arrival in West Virginia occurred by chance.  Without having much success as an artist in Raleigh, North Carolina, a chance to hitchhike his way through the “wildlife” of West Virginia led him to his current location in Charleston, West Virginia.  He moved here with a friend and neighbor in the 1970s, and still lives and works here today.  He works more hours a day than the average person, sometimes as much as sixteen hours.  His everyday experiences and emotions come out in his work tied with the unexpected creatures and elaborate colors and patterns.

Current and Future Work
“Charly,” as his friends and colleagues call him, recently finished part of a collaborative mural at the Charleston Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  His current works are exhibited regularly at the Callen McJunkin Gallery and Taylor Books.  Some of his newer works incorporate new materials, such as corrugated metal and other found items into his paintings.   Hamilton also participated in a collaborative “visual sytem” of letters created by different artists for the 2009 FestivALL logo, and his face was featured in a tribute by artist Jeff Pierson.  Along with his artwork, he participates in teaching young children and adults alike at the Unitarian Universalist Church through the River Arts classes offered there.