The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations — each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony. — Ruth Bernhard, photographer
Charlotte Kay was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Wellesley (near Boston) Massachusetts. She vividly recalls her first artistic endeavor was making mud pies in the backyard at age 4. Since then she has sought texture and pattern in her landscape art.
She graduated from The Florida State University with a BA in Design and returned to work in Boston as a graphic designer for seven years.
In 1972, she relocated to San Francisco and formed Charlotte Kay Designs. Over the next 30 years, she developed such long-term clients as Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Harper and Row Publishing, and The Nature Conservancy of California. Frequently, she took art classes and workshops in photography and various media.
For the last several years she has been mesmerized by the alchemy of kiln-form glass created in her SOMA Artists Studio. Using her landscapes photos as models and inspiration, she stacks layers of different shape, sizes and opacities of compatible glass and fires to temperatures from 1300-1500 in a kiln to achieve depth and textures.
She has had several solo shows and many group shows in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2002 -2015, and became a member of San Francisco Women Artists Gallery in 2015.