President's Message
Dear Members,
This will be my final letter as President of the GCA Board. Since our new fiscal year dates are now June 1 - May 31. I will be stepping down after my nearly two-year term. It has been a real honor and journey serving as your volunteer President and I hope I did not disappoint. When I decided to take on the role, I hesitated a bit knowing how much of my time it would take away from my art and my family. However, now that I am stepping down and looking back, I have no regrets whatsoever. My approach to life these days is to be open to change, support the art community, be progressive in my thinking, and show up. As many of you know, being an artist is not an easy journey, especially when it comes to making a living at it. That said, I want to encourage each of you to be true to yourselves and allow your creativity to come from your heart and not let the goal for financial success be your driving force. Keep doing what you do best and practice it until you are confident and happy with the results you see. You will enjoy success in knowing that you've done it and you have done it well.
I would like to congratulate and thank new members who joined up this year and last. I also want to congratulate and recognized three awesome people who have recently joined the board of the GCA: Our newsletter lead, Elizabeth Ouzts, our new programming lead, Brittany Freeman and our new secretary, René Fielder. And a huge Congratulations to our newly elected Vice President, Amy Dokken.
A loud shout out to a few dedicated Guild Board members who have rolled off the board to attend to other pressing matters. They more than deserve a mention, they really deserve a Nobel Prize: Kathy Weiss, Kathy Collins, Susan Moore, Mary Kamerer, and Torrie Smiley.
I want to wish John Komisin the best of luck and success in his new role as President. He will be awesome.
Thanks so much for letting me serve as your President. I’m excited to see where the Guild goes next and I plan to keep being part of this awesome community. This is not the end of my activity on the Board; I will still be in the mix working hard to keep the Guild of Charlotte Artists one of the largest and best non-profit artist run creative communities in Charlotte.
Finally, I wanted to share something I think is important to all artists who have been faced with "imposter syndrome," the question of whether you are good enough to be an artist. Nicholas Wilton, the founder and leader of Art2Life, really says it best:
"The art you make doesn’t come from credentials. It doesn’t come from degrees or years of training or someone official deciding you’ve earned the right to pick up a brush. It comes from your heart. From lived experience. From the accumulation of everything your life has been, the good things, the hard things, the beautiful things, the devastating things...... Your soul. Your intuition. Your utterly unique experience of being alive on this earth at this moment in history. Your lived experience is just as valid, just as deep, just as rich as anyone else’s. Art doesn’t come from being special. It comes from being human. .... The permission you’ve been waiting for isn’t coming from somewhere outside of you. It was never going to come from there. It comes from the decision to show up and make the work anyway."
I am truly grateful to have met so many artists in the Charlotte community. Keep doing what you do best.
And as we say at VAPA --- "Just PAINT dammit"
Have a great summer. I will see you at the shows.
Mikel Frank, soon to be Past President of the Guild of Charlotte Artists
Upcoming events.
Member Highlight
Sharon Sasser
My name is Sharon Sasser and this is the 2nd year as a member of the Guild of Charlotte Artists. I am formally retired from corporate America and although I have been an artist for over 40 years I am now able to really concentrate on my abstract paintings. I work with acrylics and alcohol inks. I have worked with alcohol inks for over 15 years and now often times combine the 2 mediums.
For well over a year I have been the live in caretaker for my beautiful mother who is now 87 and unfortunately declining. I realized that I never did a profile, never really introduced myself, and have not even had the opportunity to attend one of the amazing meetings. My art has been my saving grace during this period.
I am self taught and was named the top alcohol ink artist by Narainfiniti for the month of August 2024. This was an international competition held by Narainfiniti who produces some of the finest alcohol inks and paper worldwide.
Carlynn Fergason
Mostly operating on the other side of the fence protecting creative works and brands, Carlynn is a Chicago transplant inspired by color, nature, and whimsy.
Finding North Carolina full of plenty, she gravitates towards ethereal abstract landscapes and nature photography, working primarily in oil and watercolor, with the occasional gold leaf sprinkled in
Manasee Gokhale
I hold a Master’s degree in Economics from India, where I spent the first 30 years of my life. Teaching has shaped much of my journey. I began my career teaching economics at the college and university level, and later earned a diploma in Journalism, going on to work with The Economic Times in India.
After immigrating to the United States, life took an unexpected turn. Continuing in academia was not simple without an American degree, and during that period of transition, I found myself returning to what had always grounded me — yoga. Having practiced yoga since the age of five, becoming a teacher felt like a natural extension of my life. I completed an intensive teacher training program in India and have now been teaching yoga for over 12 years. In many ways, life brought me back to teaching, only through a different path.
Art entered my life in a similarly organic way. I often describe myself as a circumstantial artist — entirely self-taught, shaped more by life experiences than by formal artistic training. I have tremendous patience and the ability to sit with myself for hours, and that quiet discipline naturally found its way into my work. I am deeply drawn to intricate detail and fine line work, which is why Indian folk and tribal art resonate with me so strongly.
Alongside this love for vibrant and detailed traditional art forms, I have always been fascinated by calligraphy. As a child, I was often complimented on my handwriting, and years later I pursued my first formal calligraphy course. Since then, Japanese and Tibetan calligraphy have become an important part of my artistic expression. Their minimalism, balance, and meditative quality feel profoundly therapeutic to me.
In many ways, my work exists between contrasts — the richness and vibrancy of folk art on one hand, and the restraint and simplicity of minimalist calligraphy on the other. I believe both have their own language, their own audience, and their own place in the world.
Life has been kind to me, and I carry a deep sense of gratitude. I believe art should be a part of everyone’s life, much like yoga. It has the power to ground us, heal us, and make life infinitely more meaningful.
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