You are invited to an opening reception!

Meet the artist and experience a ceramics installation unlike any you’ve seen before.

September 19, 2026, 5-8pm, during the Issaquah Art Walk

Location: 157 Front Street North

Artist Statement:

“Fertile Void” takes you through key parts of the last five years of my life. Mushrooms, a Pacific Northwest staple in our forests, became the overarching motif across all of my work. As the world's natural composters, for mushrooms to grow something first must die. Mushrooms became a representation of the death of my life before becoming seriously ill, and the growth of my life in ceramics that came after.

As I’ve created the pieces for the show I’ve had great difficulty balancing the needs of my body, my part time job, and creating the pieces that represent such a personal part of my life. Dealing with pain, fatigue, and heat intolerance in the summer, both affirmed the importance of what I was making and limited me greatly. Part of the act of creation when ill is accepting that pain is inevitable, and making it anyway. The handicap of illness limiting the body, and the expression of imagination.

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Charlotte Gitelman is a Sammamish-based artist who channels her experiences with a multitude of chronic illnesses and her disability into clay, working out of her studio in her parent’s garage. While the crushing weight of her conditions came in a landslide in the past five years, leading to diagnoses, she has lived with these conditions all her life, unaware of the abnormality of what she dealt with daily.

You can learn more about Charlotte’s work here.

The gallery space is open by appointment only, and for pop up hours as announced. Reach out, and follow our instagram for details! We would love to show you this gorgeous work.

Previous exhibits at Happy Time:

May - August 2024: “The Language of Trees” - William Cook - Linocuts and monotypes (website)

September - November 2024: “Shadows of Life” - Matthew DeFilippo - Oil paintings (website)

December 2024 - February 2025: “Social Media” - Multidisciplinary group show

March 2025 - April 2025: “For the Love of Film” - Arturo Solorio & Sammy Alvarez - photographers and associated mixed media sculpture (more from Arturo & Sammy)

May 2025 - June 2025: “Letters from Strangers Friends” - Anna Sullivan (website)

July 2025 - August 2025: “Urban Wildlife: A Shared Space” - Raili Jänese - Acrylic paintings (website)

September 5 - October 19 2025: “ΓΝΩΘΙ ΣΕΑΥΤΟΝ (know thyself)” - Juliet Fiss - Acrylic paintings (website)

November 2025 - February 2026: “Out of Sight” - Joan Fiset - Textile hangings, dolls, and poetry (website)

March 2026 - April 2026: “To Return” - William Cook - Monotype prints and oil painting (website)

May 2026 - June 2026: “Intimate Inheritances” - Jes Lilly - Oil and acrylic painting (website)

July 2026 - August 2025: “Home Again” - Diane Bellisario - Wood Marquetry (website)