Charles Lunn
The Raw Power of Abstract Expression - A Journey with Charles Lenny Lunn
"My art lets me free my mind from the constraints of my junky body."
Something profound happens when an artist finds their true medium. For this month's featured artist, Charles Lenny Lunn, that medium is abstract painting paired with deeply expressive poetry, creating a powerful dialogue between visual and written language that challenges everything we think we know about communication, perception, and what it means to be heard.
Charles is a non-speaking artist whose work emerges from a place of radical honesty about the disconnect between mind and body, transforming what some see as limitation into a source of extraordinary creative power. His paintings and poems show us what it looks like when someone refuses to be defined by others' assumptions about their capabilities.
Liberation Through Abstraction
When Charles reflects on his choice to work in abstract styles, there's a fierce practicality mixed with profound wisdom: "I work in abstract styles so I'm not bound by having the fine motor control of an elephant." He's found a way to turn physical challenges into creative freedom, choosing a medium that celebrates expression over precision.
His hands may "quake from tremors that are the big cherry on top of my apraxia sundae," but look at his work and you see something remarkable: those tremors become part of the energy, part of the moment being captured. The abstract style amplifies the emotional truth he's trying to convey while accommodating his physical reality.
This approach offers something powerful for all creators: sometimes our supposed limitations are pointing us toward our most authentic expression. Charles has embraced abstraction as the perfect vehicle for what he has to say.
Painting the Moment
Charles's creative process is beautifully present-focused: "I am in the moment when I paint. Moments are a combination of my feelings, current events, and the energy around me. My paintings and poems are expressions of that moment at creation."
An Artist Moment: 24”x24” Acrylic on Canvas
His focus is on capturing truth as it exists right now. Each piece becomes a time capsule of emotion, energy, and awareness. His painting "An Artist Moment" perfectly captures this philosophy with its accompanying poem:
One moment captured—
Feelings and thoughts
swirl, leap, blur, and
Rise inside to be shared.
Out, they grow on their own.
Received, they inspire.
Interpreted, they impact.
Art is a language itself.
For me, the most moving thing about Charles’s approach to creativity is the idea that art doesn't have to be about perfection or even intention, but about honest presence. Charles creates from whatever is happening inside him right now, and that immediacy gives his work its power.
The Emotion in Visual Art
One of Charles's most important insights challenges how we typically think about emotional expression in art: "People always insist on seeing emotions in music and sometimes forget that visual art might actually contain just as much, if not more, raw feeling on the canvas."
This perspective is crucial. We're conditioned to expect emotional depth from music, but somehow visual art is often viewed as more decorative or intellectual. Charles's work demands that we recognize the emotional intensity that can exist in color, texture, and abstract form. His paintings are, quite literally, emotional landscapes.
When he says he hopes his images "stir some deep seeded shit inside and bring it to the surface," he's talking about art's real purpose: not to be pretty or comfortable, but to move something inside the viewer, to create connection and recognition and maybe even transformation.
Mind, Body, and Creative Truth
Perhaps the most powerful theme running through Charles's work is his relationship with embodiment. "I am frustrated by my mind being trapped in this body when they don't cooperate together," he shares directly. But rather than being defeated by this disconnect, he's found ways to use it.
"A big way I view my art openly accepts the disconnect between my mind's look at the subjects and my body's interpretation," he explains. This acceptance becomes a creative philosophy—embracing the gap between intention and execution, finding beauty in the space between what the mind envisions and what the hands can create.
Struggling to not Sink: 40”x30” Acrylic on Canvas
His painting "Struggling to not Sink" captures this tension beautifully, with its accompanying meditation on perspective and scale:
Every sneeze is a hurricane to a fly.
To the same fly, the head of a pin is a roomy sofa.
Rowing across the nighttime sky is large feat for humans.
It's nothing to the moon.
Shining now your light on the darkness inside of us,
Who is say how massive it is?
There's so much wisdom here about how we measure struggle, about the relativity of challenges, and about finding our place in the larger cosmos of experience.
The Courage of Unfinished Things
Unfinished: 10” x 8” Acrylic under Plexiglass
Charles's piece "Unfinished" asks a question that resonates far beyond the art world: "How do you feel done with something that has no final note? When do your canvases protest the next stroke? Can chafing desire turn just right art into overdone blob?"
This speaks to something many creators struggle with—knowing when to stop, accepting imperfection, understanding that sometimes the most honest thing we can do is leave something intentionally incomplete. In a world that demands polish and resolution, Charles offers permission to embrace the unfinished, the ongoing, the perpetually becoming.
Beyond Assumptions
Through his art and written reflections, Charles consistently challenges assumptions about communication and capability. "Looking at someone doesn't tell you much about how they think or feel," he reminds us. His art exists as proof of this truth—here is a mind that is vibrant, philosophical, cosmic, and deeply attuned to the world, expressing itself through means that transcend traditional speech.
He writes candidly about his experience: "If my story speaks to you, get curious. There are so many more like me. People who have no voice and got no real education and were treated indeed like mental handicapped children to be babysat, however old we were."
This isn't just personal truth-telling—it's advocacy. Charles is using his platform to shine light on others who have been underestimated, dismissed, or overlooked. His success as an artist becomes a form of resistance against systemic assumptions about intelligence, capability, and worth.
Art as Challenge
"All good art should cause us to get challenged in our thinking," Charles states, and his work delivers on this promise. Every piece asks us to reconsider what we think we know about communication, about bodies and minds, about the sources of creative power.
His mother, Lorie, has been instrumental in supporting and documenting his creative journey for over two decades, helping ensure his voice reaches wider audiences. This collaboration itself challenges assumptions about independence and assistance, showing how support can amplify rather than diminish an artist's authentic expression.
Hope in the Darkness
When asked about his hopes for the world, Charles's response is both simple and profound: "I hope worldwide kindness looms in the near future. Until people refrain from judging others, the world looks badly situated in vast chaos. I just hope change truly happens."
This desire for kindness and non-judgment comes from lived experience of being misunderstood, underestimated, and dismissed. His art becomes a form of this kindness, offering viewers a chance to see the world through different eyes, to expand their understanding of what's possible.
The Language of Truth
Charles Lenny Lunn's art reminds us that creativity is about finding the most authentic ways to express what's true for us right now. His abstract paintings and accompanying poetry create a language that is entirely his own, one that speaks to the complexity of human experience in ways that traditional communication sometimes cannot.
His work asks us fundamental questions: What if the goal isn't to conform to external expectations of how art should look or how communication should happen? What if the most powerful creative acts come from embracing exactly who we are, tremors and disconnections and all?
In a world that often demands we hide our struggles, Charles offers radical honesty. In a culture that values fine motor control and conventional beauty, he offers emotional truth and cosmic perspective. In a society that judges based on appearances, he offers the profound reminder that "looking at someone doesn't tell you much about how they think or feel."
His art gives us all permission to exist differently, to value different things, to recognize the profound creativity that can emerge when we stop trying to fit into boxes that were never made for us.
As Charles writes, art is a language itself. Through his paintings and poetry, he's fluent in expressing truths that matter, creating beauty that challenges, and offering hope that change truly can happen—one honest moment, one authentic expression, one stirred-up feeling at a time.
Follow Charles: Facebook
You can learn more about Charles and purchase his work on his website
If you're interested in being featured as a monthly artist, or if you know someone whose creative journey might inspire others, reach out to us. Every story of neurodivergent or disabled creativity matters, whether you're a seasoned professional or someone who just discovered their artistic voice.
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About the Author
Gal is an autistic artist, late-diagnosed at 49, and the creator of AuRTistic Expressions—a space where neurodivergent truth meets creative survival. Through blog posts, printables, courses, and the “This Might Get Messy” podcast, Gal explores what it means to unmask safely, communicate authentically, and make art that doesn’t ask for permission. Stick around—there’s plenty more where this came from.
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Cover Photo: Charles Lenny Lunn
