Through the Rupture: Charles R. Everett Wins Editor’s Pick
Congrats to Charles R. Everett for winning Editor's Pick at The Popcorn Easel Art Show in St. Louis MO 2026. Everett’s compelling portfolio blends deep personal narratives with vibrant, biting contemporary satire, offering viewers a striking window into both his internal world and the external political landscape.
For Everett, the journey to becoming an artist began as a profound means of survival. Following his parents' divorce, he endured a turbulent childhood marked by an abusive, addict father. In the midst of this instability, art became a sanctuary. "Pages of paper became windows to a reality I could escape to whenever I wanted," Everett recalls, "and the only thing limiting what happened there was my imagination and how good I could illustrate it. "Ironically, one of his few positive memories of his father was watching him draw cartoons—a spark that inspired Everett to pursue the craft himself. Today, his creative path is anchored by a deeply supportive mother figure who serves as a major source of motivation and encouragement.
This deeply personal connection shines through in his intricately detailed graphite piece Ms. Fortune, which was directly inspired by his mother figure. The artwork features a gypsy cat wearing a turban and jewelry, sitting before a desk flanked by a large raven, a melting candle atop a skull, and bookshelves filled with texts—including recognizable titles like The Hobbit and Voodoo—representing aspects of her life. In the piece, the feline shaman stares in critical disbelief at a tarot reading where she has pulled three consecutive Tower cards. As Everett notes, each deck should only contain one Tower card to represent massive life changes, making the appearance of three extremely unusual. The surrounding esoteric symbols, along with jars holding strange creatures and a Venus flytrap, heighten the narrative, solidifying the cat's status as a guide into the occult world. Her shocked, narrow-eyed expression subverted her role as an expert guide, prompting Everett to ask, "How could someone so steeped in the strange world of the occult be so surprised?"
In sharp contrast to the black-and-white mystical depth of Ms. Fortune, Everett’s piece Dissillusionmint channels his perspective on the cyclical nature of American politics through a bold, surreal color landscape. Everett utilizes highly saturated, vibrant colors to initially evoke a happy, inviting feeling, intentionally drawing the viewer in before they digest a serious, thought-provoking commentary. The piece relies on striking, unmistakable imagery to present extreme caricatures of the two major political parties. On the left stands an anthropomorphic donkey clad in a blue backwards hat, sunglasses, a gold chain, and a BLM shirt, smoking a joint. On the right stands an elephant wearing a red MAGA hat, wire-rimmed glasses, camo pants with boots, a blazer, and an American flag tie, holding a lit cigarette with a revolver tucked into his waistband. The two figures point aggressively at each other, stepping over a fallen, bleeding Statue of Liberty whose crown lies shattered beside a "We the People" book.
The title Dissillusionmint serves as a clever linguistic breakdown of the current political state. Everett explains the wordplay as a reflection of corporate profits masquerading as moral alliances: a "diss" is an insult, an "illusion" is something that isn’t how it appears, and a "mint" represents a massive amount of money. Through this lens, he critiques a two-party system where both sides blame each other for a loss of liberty while enriching themselves, leaving the public to bear the brunt of inflation, war, natural disasters, and a ballooning housing market. Everett notes that his comic book work stems from a desire to create spaces where the strength of good overcomes evil, whereas his political art reflects a contemporary world where that rarely seems to happen.
Ultimately, Everett does not dictate how an audience should feel when encountering his work. He finds the greatest joy in hearing the diverse and contrasting interpretations viewers bring to his drawings. "One piece of art can elicit very different meanings and emotions from two people that are very close and neither interpretation is wrong," Everett says. For him, the ultimate success is simply knowing his art excited something within the viewer—whether that manifests as a deep insight, an emotional reaction, or a simple appreciation for an incredibly cool piece of art.
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Lukumi Arlota – Contributing Writer
Lukumi Arlota is a mental health advocate, black empowerment activist, public speaker, and business owner.
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