My Story

Mixed media painting, sculpture, murals, printmaking and installations are the focus of most of the work Char Downs creates. She relocated to Kentucky from the San Francisco Bay area in 2004. Her eclectic work has been shown in the Pacific Rim, Europe and the Continental United States.

A graduate of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa Fine Arts Program, Char also earned a 5th year Secondary Art Education Diploma. She has been a Fine Arts Department Chair, a private, public, middle and high school Art instructor and a College Art teacher. She was also the Public Information Officer for the Northern Marianas Council for Culture and the Arts.

In October 2004, Char moved with her husband Jay, to Paducah, Kentucky to become part of the city’s groundbreaking Lower Town Arts District award winning Artist Relocation Program.

She opened Pinecone Art Gallery & Studio on November 15, 2005 showing artists work from around the United States for 5 years. She has participated in juried shows throughout her career and has won several awards. She has also received several commissions during that time for public and private art. Char has been juried into the Governors Derby Art Show, Kentucky Architectural Artists Directory, the Berea Center for the Arts and the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington. 

In 2015, celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Pinecone Gallery/Studios in Paducah, Char completed a three year project of LifeMasks collected from 357 individual faces from around the world and around the block. These LifeMasks became part of “ONE COMMUNITY, 1 life,” a full gallery installation. Part of this installation was chosen by Keen Studio in Grand Rapids for show in the 8th annual ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, MI. and in a number of other shows in Kentucky.

For over thirty years, Char has painted murals in Arizona, Saipan, Hawai’i, California, Florida, and Kentucky.  

She was chosen as the Lead Artist for the Quilt City USA®Murals Project. A ten year project to paint 36 photo-real quilts with 6 locally-based artists. She painted the first quilt mural, for the 2017 second Quilt Show and Contest and the UNESCO Conference for Folk Art and Crafts in Paducah. The quilt mural was fully  sponsored by the Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation.

Her public art can been seen though out Paducah: Ingram Barge Flood wall Murals, Steel panels at the Pocket Art Park at Market House Square, Dogwood/Towboat Propeller Bike Rack at the downtown Gazebo, Quilt City USA Murals, and even a fire hydrant next to Pinecone Gallery.