Artist Statement from Celery Jones
Celery Jones, an artist since her childhood in Appalachia, now thrives in Olympia’s creative community. Her artwork celebrates notable individuals, experiences, and music in vibrant color. Jones’s diverse career spans craft paint manufacturing, decorative painting, event design, murals, film, and television art direction—her work appearing on HGTV, Netflix, FX, HBO and other international networks . A self-described creative chameleon, she embraces any style or challenge, from lightning-storm barbarian scenes to immersive interior design. For Jones, art is about bringing people together, expressing energy through color, and finding joy in every creative opportunity.
Celery Jones’s paintings celebrate the resilience, power, and complexity of women, offering portraits that balance strength with vulnerability. Each work amplifies the presence of women who refuse to be diminished, reflecting not only personal narratives but also broader cultural struggles for recognition and respect. Her work resonates with the theatrical performance POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive, where women confront chaos with determination, wit, and unshakable resolve. Jones brings the same theatricality to her art—bold compositions, dramatic contrasts, and figures that command space—mirroring the play’s energy and irreverence. Through paint, she crafts a stage where women’s voices and actions are undeniably central, asking audiences to witness their power and, ultimately, to see themselves in the drama of persistence, resistance, and triumph.
Artist Statement from Lynette Charters
Charters has been a professional, practicing artist since the late 80s and has shown internationally.
The Matilda Effect Series celebrates women’s history and achievements which are generally less documented, less compensated, and frequently appropriated leading us to believe that women are only useful in supporting roles and domestic settings. Painted on repurposed household objects to provide context to the tension between how women are traditionally represented and the trailblazers they really are. The Matilda Effect was named for Matilda Joslyn Gage, (who was a columnist and suffragist publicizing the forgotten achievements of women) by historian Margaret Rossiter.
The Missing Women Series references famous paintings in history while erasing the women depicted in the originals to demonstrate how women are missing from Museums and documented history, and how their achievements are being erased as we breathe.
“I started The Missing Women Series to demonstrate how female identifying people are presented but not represented in Museums and text books taught in schools. The Missing Parents Series came along when the rights of parents and child bearing humans became under political attack. I hope you enjoy reading about their herstories.” – Artist Lynette Charters