Local Business Highlight: Charles Anderson, Artist and Activist

I first met Charles Anderson at Canal Street Church; he’s a hard-to-miss guy with his signature artistic jackets and contagious energy. We had a chance to get to know each other better through a fantasy football league with mutual friends, and over the years, our friendship grew.

I first met Charles Anderson at Canal Street Church; he’s a hard-to-miss guy with his signature artistic jackets and contagious energy. We had a chance to get to know each other better through a fantasy football league with mutual friends, and over the years, our friendship grew.

I’m a big supporter of his work and have purchased a few pieces of his artwork and one of his “loud” jackets (I have never worn anything that garnered so many compliments).

The story of Charles’ career and work is one of those incredible stories that proves great changes are bound to happen when you put your heart and soul into your work and share your passion with others. I’m excited to share the story and work of my friend and professional artist Charles Anderson.

A New Orleans story rooted in nonviolence

After Charles graduated from college in 2005 from St John’s College, he became active in anti-war movements and peace marches. After watching a non-violence march on TV that took place in New Orleans, he realized his love for this city and decided New Orleans is where he wanted to put down his roots.

“I saw New Orleans as this city that was blossoming and ripe for a renaissance. Shortly after I moved here and became involved in the community organizing marches and vigils for families and mothers who had lost their children to violence.”

Throughout the course of his work on marches and vigils, one mother asked if he could draw a portrait of her son who had passed away. Unable to say “no,” Charles put his artistic work to the test and created a portrait for this mother. “When I gave it to her she just started singing and dancing and was amazed–she got all the other mothers to give me pictures of their sons to draw. Soon, I started drawing portraits of the kids on the baseball team I coached at the time.”

Charles created these portraits with the sole purpose of showing these teens and young adults that they are valuable and that someone cares about them. “I wanted to take the time to show how important they are,” Charles said.

Eventually, Charles had his first art show and his artistic talents began to blossom with hard work and encouragement from everyone around him. Today, he’s started creating larger portraits emphasizing the detail and emotion of the human face.

Artwork with a mission

What makes Charles’ work unique is that each piece he creates is made with a mission: to stop violence, murders, and shootings in New Orleans. He was part of a leadership group that helped establish an organization called CeaseFire, a nonprofit that aims to reduce violence in New Orleans.

The sole purpose of the work that Charles creates is to help lower the amount of violence in New Orleans and any money or publicity he receives with his artwork he shares and expands into CeaseFire.

For him, he wants to be the best artist in New Orleans and eventually, America because he wants to be able to fund the anti-violence and youth programs, like CeaseFire, that means so much to him and the community here in New Orleans.

“I wanted to bring a sense of urgency to my art in the same way Dr. Martin Luther King did in his speeches. All my work is in black and white because I believe the most important question is violence or nonviolence –it’s a black and white question and a call to the conscious to see what side are you on.”

Someday he hopes to have a gallery of his own in the Julia Art District and grow his artwork on a national level to help call attention to what is going on in New Orleans.

Calling New Orleans home

Charles moved to New Orleans in 2007 and now lives here with his wife. They have enjoyed watching the community grow and recently started out as foster parents to a wonderful young girl.

“New Orleans is just a phenomenal city; there’s a creativity in the air like no other place,” he shares. “It’s the people who have a vibrance and energy that I love and feed off as an artist. They are willing to tell their story and open up to anybody.”

Bringing light to New Orleans

Sharing Charles’s story is more than sharing the story of his artwork; any publicity he receives helps bring light to the issues and violence that are happening in New Orleans, and the amazing people and organizations that are working to improve our community.

It’s easy to see that Charles’s work is bigger than simply being an artist, he’s touching lives and changing a community one portrait at a time.

Support the change. Check out his work!