Art Makes Lives Better

Charlotte Kell was an artist, poet and teacher and was born Rockbourne, Hampshire in 1944. Kell was a singular personality, with a fountain of ideas which found expression in a stream of visual and written work. Kell attended the University of California, Berkeley in the 1970’s studying a range of two- and three-dimensional art disciplines and photography. On return to England her studies continued through the 1980s and into the 1990s, at London University, North London and Oxford Polytechnics, Froebel College and the Roehampton Institute. As well as graduating with honours in English literature and Classics in translation, she studied early childhood education and qualified to teach at secondary level and English as a foreign language. Kell was also a busy freelance portrait photographer, art teacher and participant in community art and workshops. She also taught creative writing and took part in poetry readings and workshops organised by the Poetry Society. During the 1980s, she published her poetry, for adults and children, through Stylus Publicatations and, more often, with Outposts Publications. In 2002, Outposts also published Collages, Art Boxes and Sculpture, a book on Kell's visual work by Max Wykes-Joyce, former art critic of the International Herald Tribune. Kell had participated in a series of boxed art exhibitions organised by the boxes enthusiast Jane England, of England & Co. As is often the case with boxed art, Kell's constructions were "open to many readings", as too is the case with much of her two-dimensional work. She was stylistically influenced by graffiti, posters and printed ephemera.

Artwork is in good condition and is mounted to size 41 x 51 cm.