Mohawk artist wins top honors at Massena art exhibition

Submitted by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe

Mohawk artist Charlotte King took a first place prize in the Massena Artist Association’s 2009 annual juried art exhibition. King won in the category of oil painting for her painting, Waiting for the Prize, after submitting two pieces for the show. Her winning image was a large-format canvas of male traditional pow-wow dancers standing in a semi-circle.”

“I was thrilled to receive this first place prize,”” said King. “I’ve embraced the idea that artists need to promote themselves, so I’ve been entering as many shows as possible to get a higher level of name recognition and sell more of my work.”

King has been involved with art since the 1980s when she attended St. Lawrence College and got a two-year diploma in art. Her next years were spent raising a family of five children, but in 1990 she started painting again. In 1992 she put work in the Mohawk ’92 show in Montreal and was later invited to submit work in shows in Point Claire and Ottawa. King decided to go back to school in 2005, after attending a workshop in Brockville, Ontario that kick-started her desire for art education. She began attending SUNY Potsdam in 2005 and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in December 2008. While at Potsdam, she studied for a semester at the renowned Indian Art School in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

“My primary inspiration has been Native women and Mohawk culture,” she said. “Mostly I work in oil and I do some lithography and intaglio prints, too, but didn’t put any prints in this show. My work is generally native-themed with some landscapes and is still in the developing stages. Right now I’m migrating more towards native women as subjects.”

“On behalf of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, we are pleased that one of our community members received this honor and we offer our congratulations to Charlotte. We encourage her to continue her work and enter it in art shows,” said Tribal Chief Barbara Lazore.

Over 100 interested people turned out for the exhibit and awards ceremony on Tuesday, February 10th, at the Massena Public Library. Awards were given in several categories including oil painting, acrylic paintings, pastel drawings, photography and mixed media.”

“We were happy with both the quality of the art work submitted and the turnout for the reception. This is the 24th annual show hosted by the Massena Artist’s Association and will run through February 27th,” said association president, Dorothy Badger.