Inspired by her daughter’s work in graphic design, Charlene Thomas began painting in the early 1990s. Thomas approached art as "a way of expressing the things that I think and dream, the things that I can’t put into words." Serious about her commitment to learn all that she could about painting and the creative process, Thomas returned to college in 1992. In 1998, she graduated from Stetson University with a degree in studio art and a minor in art history. For Thomas, The Front Gate is an image of expectation and possibilities. "When we enter the gate into a new place," she says, "there is a feeling of hope. The Front Gate represents a starting point, the place where we find ourselves, where there are an infinite number of possibilities, so many different ways we can go. All we have to do is begin." Thomas appreciates art because each work is open to so many interpretations. "There is no right or wrong," she claims. "The artist and the audience have equal roles. The artist and the viewer—it takes them both to make a work of art." [artist biography by Sydney Pettus; artist photograph by Daniel Zegiel]
		Charlene Thomas
	The Front Gate, 1998, acrylic on wood