On a trip back to visit my parents where I grew up in Missouri, we drove past this neglected old home out in the middle of nowhere. Out West, a painted lady with that much potential would boast a nice price tag, and I asked my father how much would a place like that go for. His answer typified the local taste for shiny, new things: who would want it? Well, she's pretty overgrown, and maybe even gone by now, but I remember her.

I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. Teachers put my desk at the front of the room and I thought until I had my own kids that it was a place of honor. Now I know it was where they could best keep an eye on me. They kept me busy with bulletin boards and other art projects.

It took me about thirty years to reach the conclusion that you can learn the skills and techniques, but people are born with their talents, or at least grow them from an intense inborn interest. I was born an artist. I went to summer art camp in junior high and I took art classes in college, but except for some dabbling I avoided painting classes. A watercolorist friend in the early 90's goaded me unmercifully until I finally broke down and tried it myself.

Always interested in commercial art, I accidentally fell into graphic design when my husband volunteered me to illustrate for a local nursery. Not long after that I became the graphic department at a local stationery store. It's kind of an odd mix that I've become. Fine art and graphic art are often at opposite ends of the spectrum. Some of my clients are other artists, because the graphics area is sometimes a foreign field to them. At the same time, affordable graphic design often lacks artistic sensibility.

My niche is small businesses who want what they can't afford: artistic graphic design. They are local restaurants, retail shops, and services. They are friends I've known for years who live just down the road and people I've never met whose jobs have been handled completely via phone, fax, email, and snail mail. Their needs constitute a pretty broad range, from the plain and simple to the almost impossible. It's my job to give them what they want, and make it affordable.

Over the years I've created cards and other items that people have requested, so I've put together an online store—with special empasis on possum-related items, which evolved from my association with the National Opossum Society. NOS is a godsend in helping with the care of orphaned and rescued possums, so the store was created as a way to provide ongoing donations to them in gratitude for the service they have provided to me...to help them continue to help others. If you've come here as a fellow possum-lover, you'll find the Possum Store here.

—Charlotte Terhune

All contents are copyrighted by Charlotte Terhune.