INTERVIEW: Charles Cramer | Ogunquit Art Association (OAA) 50th Anniversary Showcase Artist

Charles Cramer is an Ogunquit Art Association member-artist (Painting/Drawing/Printmaking) and one of our Showcase Artists at Barn Gallery for the 2025 Season.

Charles Cramer’s Showcase at Barn Gallery will run from Wednesday, September 10th through Monday, October 13th (with an Opening Reception on Saturday, September 13th from 4-7:30 PM) and a Gallery Talk (along with Painter, Roland Salazar Rose) on Thursday, September 18th at 6pm.

Learn more about the Barn Gallery 2025 Schedule: barngallery.org/2025-season

What is the title of your Showcase and how does your artwork reflect it?

My showcase has no title, but what it consists of is illustrations to non-existent stories; specifically the adventures of heroines from two different periods (roughly 1500 and 1960, but time is somewhat flexible) that are reminiscent of myths or fairytales from some alternative version of our own timeline. The Four Martyrs at the center encapsulate some of the cultural themes that weave through the two heroines’ narratives.

What techniques, materials and ideas will you be showcasing?

The works use ink and watercolor, although I imitate the media of woodcut and engraving for the Renaissance Incidents, stained glass for the Medieval Martyrs, and lithography for the Modern Predicaments, which are based on mid-20th century thriller novel covers.

Are your titles important to your artwork?

Yes. The works are intended to elicit a kind of curiosity and wonder similar to that of looking at art from an unfamiliar period or culture; as if you saw a Dürer woodcut but did not know the Christian characters, stories, and symbolism that underpin his works. Who is that baby? Why is it in a feeding trough? What are those lilies doing there? Our foundational cultural stories can be as wonderfully absurd as Alice in Wonderland. My titles, which often use words that are archaic or from specialized scientific or religious lexicons, are intended to have the same kind of evocative quality. “Dealation,” for example, means the loss of wings. A tragic narrative is packed into a single word: the myth of Icarus, Satan in Paradise Lost, Peter Falk in Wings of Desire.

How does this body of artwork fit into your larger art production?

My work often centers on the human figure and on historical styles and modes of art. I’m not sure if figure-based art, narrative painting, or allegory are ever going to make a comeback (and I’m not sure they should), but I find them interesting.

How long has the Ogunquit Art Association been a part of your art career?

I was juried into the OAA in painting in 2012, and in drawing/printmaking a few years later.

What are your future art plans?

I’m curious to find out.

Charles Cramer has studied with Sean Beavers, DeWitt Hardy, Joshua Langstaff, and Sydney Sparrow, among others. He has a particular interest in traditional media and processes, especially those of the 18th and 19th centuries, where his scholarly work as an art historian is also centered.