Charles Edward Armstrong
An American Artist

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Charles Edward Armstrong - An American Artist
By Toni Armstrong Sample

I could start out by telling you of his educational degrees (which he earned going to night school as he and his wife, my Aunt Marguerite, raised their six children). Or, I could tell you about his commissions in Europe, his shows at the Cleveland Art Museum, or his job as Director of Art in the Berea, Ohio school district. That would all be interesting. But, it wouldn’t tell you things that are important to me about the man who is and always has been “my favorite Uncle“.

As a young man Uncle Chuck would have “chucked” it all and happily lived a bohemian lifestyle in a studio in Soho. However, he fell in love with a lovely woman from Hydetown, Pennsylvania and when he returned a decorated hero from WWII he married her and observed the custom of his catholic wife and began ‘populating the earth’. The two of them remained together until her untimely leaving from Alzheimer’s for which my Uncle was her caregiver during the duration of that disease that took her from him long before her final breath.

Charles Edward Armstrong’s art is a reflection of his life. It shows the joys and the heartaches. The tragedies and the whimsical. It is a reflection of a tormented soul and a soul yearning to fulfill it’s purpose. He is an artist in every sense of the word. He raised his children like he painted on canvas or molded with clay -- he let their lives develop as the medium dictated. Chuck will often put on music and paint what he hears -- the colors, the shapes the design coming from within. He raised his children the same way -- helping them to develop their ‘color’ and their ‘design’ as their personalities and desires molded them. His six children are as diverse as his art. I believe they are his proudest creation. After he retired from the school district he and his wife lived in a wonderful home on Lake Chippewa near Medina, Ohio. These years of quiet and solitude, walks down country lanes, watching the lake change from hour to hour and the weekly sailboat races began to show itself more and more in his art.

Uncle Chuck not only was a great influence in my appreciation for art and desire to create art but he influenced many lives including his children and grandchildren in metal art, photography, crafts, pottery, carving, painting and all manner of creative development. He always told me to ’loosen up’ -- to feel the colors and the paper and let my senses lead my creativity. He is a very special man (my father’s brother) who, I am sure by now you know that I admire very much for all the various facets of his life. I invite you to enjoy the mini-art show presented with this article and to see some other selected pieces of the hundreds he has created by visiting his online gallery that was photographed and composed for the web by his Grandson, Jesse Armstrong of Texas.