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Smoky Mountain News
January 12-18, 2005
Living a Dream:
Bryson City artist Charles Heath
follows his passion for art
By Sarah Kucharski
Nine years ago, multimedia artist Charles Heath traded in his business marketing degree for a set of paintbrushes, pastels, pen and ink and a camera in a move many only fantasize about.
Heath was born with what he calls a “God-given talent” for art, drawing, painting and taking various private art classes throughout childhood.
“I was painting in oils when I was 12,” Heath said.
He continued to hone his skills with elective art classes in high school and college, but knowing that an art career was unreliable, he majored in business marketing.
“In my mind at that time I wanted to make a lot of money,” Heath said.
The mindset lasted only so long. Working a corporate job in South Carolina, Heath was unhappy. So in 1996 he quit, loaded up a U-haul full of his belongings and moved to the Outer Banks.
He got a job as a bus boy at the Warf Restaurant and indulged in a childhood passion, sketching and photographing the world around him from local crabbers to marshes, lighthouses to Atlantic waves crashing on the piers. The restaurant’s owner knew of Heath’s hobby and let him start using the restaurant’s walls as a sort of makeshift gallery. The artwork caught on, earning raves from restaurant patrons.
However, the restaurant was only open seasonally, and Heath was laid off during the winter months — six months on, six months off, spent working odd jobs found through the unemployment office.
“I did that for three years,” Heath said.
Heath packed up again and moved to Warrenton, N.C., where he quickly met and fell in love with the woman that would become his wife, Cristina. Originally from Mexico City, Cristina is a fluent Spanish speaker turned teacher. It was the teacher’s instinct inside her that recognized Heath’s talent and pushed him to turn his artwork into a full-time project.
The couple was looking for a place where they could both pursue their career goals, when a Spanish teaching position opened in Bryson City. Heath welcomed the idea of the mountains, and Bryson City in particular, as his family roots ran deep through the community. Heath’s great-great-grandfather was a Swain County sheriff and his grandfather and namesake, Charley Browning, worked at Slayden Flakes Grocery, the town’s wholesale distributor.
The couple relocated to Bryson City where Cristina began teaching at Swain County High School and Swain County Middle School and Heath set up creating a working gallery. Coming full circle, his gallery, located at 7 Depot Street, is housed in the old Slayden Flakes building.
In the gallery, richly colored pastels give weight to Mexican inspired landscapes and scenes taken from day-to-day life. Finely detailed pen and ink drawings of North Carolina’s famous lighthouses line the wall, and candid pictures of the mountains hang alongside their large-scale oil interpretations. His work is based in realism, though he has experimented with Matisse-like cut shapes and impressionism.
“I just draw things that I’m surrounded by,” Heath said of his work’s gradual change from the sea to the mountains. “It’s like a kid in a candy store — brand new material.”
With a relatively short career as a full-time artist, Heath aims to continue his professional development by studying the science behind the form, improving his color application with a focus on hues, saturation and balance. He also hopes to tap into local history, bringing the area’s old barns and forgotten relics to canvas.
Heath’s work is on display at the Swain County Center for the Arts at Swain County High School through the end of January. His gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more about the Center for the Arts exhibit call 828.488.7843. For more information about Heath’s gallery call 828.488.3383 or visit www.charlesheath.com |
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The Smoky Mountain Times
October 2, 2003
He makes art fun
By Kyle Dixon
After spending an hour with Charles Heath a couple of weeks ago, I walked out of his new studio and gallery on Depot Street wondering what was better, his art or his sense of humor.
Pressed, I'd give a slight edge to his humor. And that's a good thing.
Don't get me wrong: his pen and inks, acrylics, photography, framing, everything is high quality - bright, vibrant, expressive. But, his energetic personality, his ability to make a person feel at ease when entering his shop, that's what I believe will make Heath last in this town. His willingness to talk to people, to make them feel welcome, and better yet, not intimidated, is a big plus.
People are a little uncomfortable around art. I know I am. I tried to impress a girl one time by taking her to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. A couple of hours later, I was literally dizzy after seeing all of works there. I'm not even sure if my date was impressed because I don't think we ever sat and discussed what we saw.
I think our conversation went something like this:
Me: "Did you like it?"
She: "Yeah."
She: "You?"
Me: "Yeah."
Me: "Wanna go see a movie?"
She: "Cool."
To me you either like something or you don't. I can't sit and talk to someone about art - I don't know the lingo, slang, or terms - but like a good book, movie, piece of furniture, I can honestly understand and know what I like.
I do like Heath's work. I particularly like his acrylics. I know I like his acrylics because when I asked about a pretty, brightly painted scene, he told me it was done in acrylic. When I said, "What's that done in?" in south Georgia grammar, he didn't shoot back a 'you mean you don't know?' and that made me feel at ease and I asked more questions.
We then talked and told funny stories - he mostly - and I haven't laughed that much in a long time.
Heath isn't originally from Bryson City, but he has roots in this town and state. His late grandfather, Charley Browning, worked in the same building Heath currently occupies on Depot St. I get the sense the connection with his past, and now his future, makes Heath feel connected and an instant part of the community.
Charles met his wife, Cristina in Warrinton, N.C. When they married, Heath was working for the state and doing art shows on the weekend. He worked a few other jobs before it was obvious to Cristina that the path he was taking wasn't an authentic one. She convinced Heath to follow his passion, which meant become a full-time artist.
"She is the backbone. She has been so supportive," he said.
Cristina Heath teaches Spanish at Swain County Middle School and Swain County High School. Her passion is teaching, and Charles Heath draws strength and stability from seeing Cristina pursuing her love of teaching - and for the Mexico City, Mexico native - her love of the language.
Charles has chosen a unique path here. He spends a great deal of time on his work, up to 60 hours on some pieces, plus he frames and creates prints to sell. He also has the role of storeowner, bill payer, order taker and all else.
It may be trying, but he seems to be holding up well with a good public response that has fueled his enthusiasm, and he has retained his witty sense of humor, which I hope he continues to use with an artful touch
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