Charlene Ralph

My Life Begins... I was born in 1962 and raised in Upstate New York. I grew up in a Christian home with my twin sister Cathy and my older brother, by five years, Tom. Our parents took us to a bible believing church from the time we were born. I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior when I was a child and continued attending church with my parents until I was 17 or 18. My mom and brother and sister are all believers and so was my dad. He passed away 15 years ago. He had a very difficult last few years of his life on this earth, so I am very glad to know that he is at perfect peace and filled with joy as he is with the Savior that he loves.

Motorcycles rule! My childhood was a blast. Of course, my dad gave us kids a lot of chores and there was work to do, but after that we could do almost anything! Summers were awesome and carefree. There were no girls in our neighborhood, so me and my sister did a lot of "boy" stuff and were rightly called "tom-boys". Our immediate neighbors had four boys who were approximately in my age group. We played football, baseball and rode dirt bike (motorcycles) in the woods behind our houses. We cut a whole network of trails through the woods and had a blast riding our motorcycles all over the place. One time, my sister and I were up on the canal path going about 90 MPH. I know because the bike I had at the time, a 1982 Yamaha IT 250, had a speedometer and it only went to 85 MPH, but I know I kept going faster after that. That sure was wild, but  par for the course, as everything about how we rode was an adrenaline rush. We were like maniacs, racing through narrow trails filled with mud, rocks and tree roots. It was crazy, but felt completely sane at the time. This was all before things got civilized and the county put in a public park, when I was 14, even taking over the trails we had made! Of course the land was county land, but we had always considered it  our "backyard".

 Adulthood approaches...My motorcycle riding continued, but as civilization overtook the woods and trails, I bought a sport bike for the road: a 1984 Kawasaki Ninja 900. My sister, Cathy bought a GPZ 750 and we were off to the races, riding the roads like we used to ride in the trails. At that time in my life, from about 19 years old and onward,  I was not living in obedience to God. I didn't attend church or read the bible or pray or anything. I also didn't obey the traffic laws, which made riding my motorcycle a blast, but highly illegal most of the time. I graduated from high school and worked minimum wage jobs to ride motorcycles. I lived to ride. I did nothing with my artistic ability. Eventually, I had had four different dirt bikes and two motorcycles for the road until...

Married with children  I have moved only once in my life, from my childhood home to where I live now, about 25 miles away. I married my brother's best friend, Dave, when I was 23 and he was 28. I have one child. My daughter, Danielle was born when I was 26. At that point my Ninja 900 had to go, since baby car seats are not made to fit on motorcycles. By the time Danielle was about three years old, God started nudging me to get serious about him again. I began to intermittently attend the church I had attended with my parents as a teenager, West Side Baptist Church (renamed Journey Christian Church in June, 2007). As my daughter grew older I became more and more serious about my relationship with Jesus Christ. I wanted her to see consistency and commitment in me and to value Jesus as much as he deserves to be valued.

Jesus Christ is my life This has been my heart cry for the last 15 years or so. I want the world to know that  Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life and that he alone is the only one who can give the happiness, peace and sense of significance that every person longs for. As a follower of Jesus Christ I am committed to finding all of my joy and happiness in him to shine forth his glorious goodness to the world. He is the driving force of my life, the one whom I worship and am willing to give my life for. Nothing is more important to me than him. I long for the world to be able to behold Jesus Christ, that they may see and desire for themselves to find all of their joy and happiness in him, thus becoming his disciples. I have seriously committed my time, talent, money and energy (both emotional and physical) to bring people into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

On to the artwork! I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. It seemed as natural to me as swimming does to a fish or as flying is to a bird.  Even though my teenage years were filled with motorcycles, I still did a lot of drawing, especially in the winter. When I was in grade school I doodled a lot on my folders. I drew cartoon characters that I invented and also copied existing cartoons. Eventually I moved towards more realistic drawings, learning to draw horses and then people. Learning to draw realistically wasn't easy and I had my share of times where I would just scream or pound on the table. It wasn't any fun, but as I improved, drawing became very enjoyable. I experimented with a lot of different mediums and was fairly good with everything, but I really settled on pencil drawings.  I now specialize in pencil drawings that look like black and white photos of whatever the subject is. I love reproducing photos exactly. To see an amazing example of this style click here

Muscle Art My artwork centers around an appreciation for the muscular human form. From the time I was very young, I have been impressed with super hero images such as Batman and Superman. My favorite character is Wolverine from Marvel comics X-Men. I created a painting of him that illustrates Hebrews 12:4. You can see it on my Artwork page. This appreciation for muscular bodies is expressed in my artwork to show strength of character and spiritual passion.  Part of my character is that I love a fierce battle and as such I have a great desire to be physically strong and healthy and spiritually fit and ready to fight. That's what I like to express in my drawings and paintings, but all the while acknowledging that God is the one who strengthens and enables and brings about victory.

Real Muscle My appreciation for the muscular human form has given me a commitment to physical fitness, not only to be healthy, but to look like some of my artwork. For much more on this go to physical fitness, or click on the "physical fitness" picture at the top of the page.

Real Heart My spiritual condition is far more important to me than my physical condition. True life and health is that which is spiritual and unseen. As hard as I train physically, to be healthy and fit, I train even harder spiritually. For a lot more on this, go to spiritual fitness or click on the "spiritual fitness" picture at the top of the page.

Music I love music. I only listen to music that glorifies God, because  he created it for that purpose. I listen to different styles like Tourniquet, Tammy Trent, Rachel Lampa, Margaret Becker, Rebecca St. James, Pillar and Disciple. I love to sing as well, and took vocal lessons for a number of years. I play guitar a bit and also simple stuff on the piano. I write lyrics now and then and sometimes write music for the lyrics.

A gray-haired old lady Though I am only 47 (as of April, 2009) and don't have any physical aches or pains, I am still looking forward, very much, to my senior years. Many who know me think I'm nuts (for more than just this) so let me explain. My driving passion is to become more like Jesus and that can only happens as time passes, so the more time passes, the more I am made like Christ! What a deal! Besides, old age with it's wrinkles and gray hair and declining health is inevitable, so why not focus on and strive for that which only gets better and better; being like Christ. My prayer to God (inspired by Pastor John Piper) is "Lord, age me into a sage, that I may have an apt answer, a compassionate, trustworthy heart and a mind filled with wisdom and knowledge".

Xalt Graphix 2009