Charlene

Charlene’s love of art and graphic design started with being given free reign in her step-mom’s home art room where she was allowed to create and explore for many hours at a time. As a junior in high school her commercial art teacher exposed her to Photoshop, package design and principles of layout. She encouraged her to pursue a career in graphic arts, which she eventually did, graduating with an AAS in Graphic Design from Lane Community College.

Charlene grew up in a small town in the eastern Sierras– the geographic “elbow” of California, as she explains it. Her graduating class consisted of only 35 students! After leaving California, Charlene studied cosmetology at a beauty school in Gulfport Mississippi. But when Hurricane Katrina laid waste to that area, she eventually followed a friend’s urging and relocated to Eugene.

Charlene is a lifelong artist with a particular interest in creating nature-inspired imagery with woodcut printmaking. She also is an avid crocheter, gardener and hiker who likes to camp, fish and explore the outdoors with her three kids. Charlene eagerly embraces the hands-on production duties at Imagine – finding it thrilling to design something and then see it brought to life on one of the big printers. With fond memories of the iron-on transfers of her youth, she especially loves making beautiful printed fabric banners and backdrops with the dye sublimation heat press.