O L I V E R Artworks

Charles Oliver’s Biography- “A Path Less Traveled, It Ain’t Pretty”
Charles Oliver was born in Philadelphia, Pa. 1948. The first of 6 children, He lived in an inner city neighborhood in West Philadelphia that was known as Brewery Town by the locals. This was simply because of all the neighborhood beer breweries. The family moved to New Jersey after he had attended Catholic schools. There he lived in a housing development that was populated mainly by blue-collar workers escaping the squalor and growing crime of the big cities. His father worked as a commercial artist doing mainly architectural renderings and advertising displays. When Charles first started attending public schools he was quickly moved to 7th grade textbooks by his teacher although he was in the 4th grade. Charles gradually became more and more bored with school and turned to more exciting diversions like hanging on the corner with his gang of friends. By the time he was a teen he barely went to school at all and was always in trouble at school and home. He would often runaway and during the summers he would go back to Philly and live on the streets and sleep in cars. He hung out with the last white street corner gang in West Philly known as “The Wrecking Crew”. West Philly was now an all black neighborhood. When Charles turned 16 he promptly quit school and began his life of work doing menial jobs.
At 17 he joined the US Marine Corps. Charles served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1969 in a Marine rifle company. There he participated in the Battle of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive. When Charles returned home he had found the country had changed. The culture had become one of hippies, anarchy, revolution and drugs. Charles fell in to the allure and fought a heroin and cocaine addiction on and off for 25 years. Through those times Charles found himself spending many days, months and years behind bars.
All the while from the time Charles could hold a crayon he continued to create art. It has always been his place to turn for inner peace and satisfaction. His father always encouraged him to do his art and instructed him when there was time.
Charles started selling his works in 1971 under the tutelage of Estelle Snellenberg in Philadelphia and worked as an Art Consultant for her firm Estelle Colwin Associates. While there he oversaw fine artists shows that exhibited works by Chagall, Cezanne, Monet and many other world and nationally known artists. Of course Charles always made sure his works were also represented.
In 1976 he began working in the commercial and advertising art fields as he soon found out you can’t live on selling fine art alone at least as a very young man. The term starving artist was a reality and Charles had spent enough years he felt going hungry. Charles worked as a graphics artist and art director at several well established ad agencies and publications. He excelled in design and was quite successful but, the scourge of drugs always found there way back into Charles’s life. Every time his star rose just as quickly he fell back into the gutter or jail. On the rebound fortunately because of his great talent there was always a firm willing to hire him despite his track record.
In 1987 Charles found that he had a terminal illness after starting to feel ill. He was told his life expectancy was 18 months to 2 years. Nineteen years later Charles is still fighting his illness and living everyday like it could be his last.
Charles moved to Virginia in 1992 (Manassas in 2002) and has never looked back. He left all the negatives in his life behind and spends nearly everyday and night creating his art. Charles found the opportunity to finally be able to rely only on his art work and no longer has to ply at other types of work. Its all fine art for him now. It may have been a road less traveled to get to where he is now but, to him the important thing is it got him to where he always yearned to be... a recognized, highly accomplished fine artist. He is finally beginning to receive the renown and rewards for all his troubled years while creating.
We that have an unending appreciation of art and artists are overjoyed to see this rare and accomplished talent emerge on the international art scene. by Susan Epps, Einzuzehn Originals, Brighton, England