About the Artist: Charlotte Backman

Born in Santa Ana, California in 1956, I’m a rare Southern California native. I started to paint rocks, way back when that was a craze in elementary school, and have been dabbling in art ever since. High school art class was downright discouraging, and I went off to get an English degree at UCLA and launched into various jobs – advertising, administrative positions at Hewlett-Packard, and working with my Dad in construction.

My creative urges were satisfied with ceramics and beading for quite some time. It is only a few years ago that I started painting in earnest, so I hold Grandma Moses as an inspiration (she got started painting much later in life than I, but we also share the same birthday.)

I can be contacted for commissions by either email charlotte@mandalavisions.com
or by calling 949-413-2251

Blue Lotus

My first round mandala. After I had finished it, I brought it to The Inside Edge one morning to show some friends. Jean Houston was our speaker that day (www.jeanhouston.org) – and she was incredibly inspirational, as expected. After the program, I showed the painting to my friend Linda Watson, who knows Jean quite well. She insisted we show it to her. So, I found myself in a large circle of people, holding my mandala in the middle of them all with the sun glistening off the crystals. Jean asked me if I was aware that it was a chakra painting, which I was. She told me it was one of the finest she’d ever seen. That one comment gave me such unbelievably powerful encouragement.

Thank you, Jean.

.