(She never got caught.) Burnt out, with no money she became a go-go dancer for a year...not wanting to feel the pressure of art sales on her quill, and wanting to feel rich. Committed to the creation of post-modernist cartoonist works, she exclusively painted buildings and living rooms expressing the underbelly of her own homeless feelings. Text and highly detailed patterns of black India ink, muted color washes, and  "scratches" permeate this work.

In 1996 she became involved with the FDNY, photographing firefighters on the job, and finding a real passion for painting burning buildings. She participated in the first ever Art of Fire exhibit at the Soho fire Museum. The fire dept became her muse. Some of her most haunting work is a series portraying the events of 9/11 in NYC, focusing on the debris and the structural devastation of the WTC towers. One of those paintings became part of the permanent collection of Lisa De Kooning in 2003. Oddly a close friend, Ff.Lt Mickey Kross survived the collapse in (stairwell B). Some of these have been donated to the State Museum of NY. These are on view at the 9/11 memorial and museum.

In early 2001, by then a first-time mother, Ghiorse began a series about nascent motherhood.  (Mother X) In this series, she returned to some of her early training in abstract expressionism. Large, billowy flowers in an aqueous dreamscape reveal at closer inspection, tiny "cartoons" of domestic life. This series was shown at the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2004, and again at the Lower East Side Girls Club. Some of these were also loaned to the Dunn Development Corporation, which in 2017 Became a mosaic and currently stands on the Corner of Meeker and Manhattan Avenue in Brooklyn, NY.  Neptunian Neighborhood, measures, 10ftX 23ft long. TATE collections, considered her for acquisition in 2005, and kept a copy of her CV. Ghiorse then began working in film  a first short entitled "Every Woman is a Diva,” which screened at the Chicks with Flicks Film Festival, the Cape May New Jersey film festival in 2004. As well as at New York's East Village Pioneer Theater in January of 2005.  

AS she gave birth to her 3rd child Another short film “Preggers” was finished in 2007.  At the same time she began working on a series of paintings in gray, pink, black and white.  The title of this series is FAST & Cheap: Crowns, Cars and Chandeliers.  The paintings were made on found art supplies and because she was a new mom of 3, the “found” aspect really worked and served mostly to keep her toe in the painting process.  Inner dimensions, of pink black white and gray, gave it a fashion sense. While the subject matter was literal: Crowns, Cars, Chandeliers.  Pointing the finger at the iconography in American Culture of Excess and Decay.  Wealth + Home + Cars, which contribute to destroying the Environment.  From this series was Born the American Garbage installation series.  Of which she has made Five to date.  House of ChoCLeT (clothing label) was also conceived during this time: silkscreen printing on UpCyled and Used fabric and clothing. She continues to participate in live silkscreen shows, and sells through Jane’s Exchange in NYC.   

In 2010 she hosted the Group Show American GARBAGE, which also produced a self-titled film “American Garbage 2010” Which Later won the Spirit Award at the Williamsburg International Film Festival in Brooklyn, NY in 2013.  Also gleaning a Voice Choices Mention.  In 2012 the second American Garbage installation was on view as a part of PS1’s Go BROOKLYN, art Exhibit.  Titled “the Family Jewels” with a video installation: “dreamin’ is free” the paintings installed on two walls on a grid—this show was largely about the aspect of Legacy & that Santa Claus could be Black. What do we leave behind? What Garbage do we leave behind?  In 2014 The Garbage Show went on the road to Pier 96 in Manhattan, titled “Failure is the Mother”  with a video: “cement truck, ice-cream truck, dump truck”—all about the struggles of balancing work and Motherhood and how raise children with self-esteem, they are also about being a Consumer.  In 2018 American Garbage showed at Casa Gallery in NYC, with a piece titled: “take what you want and leave the rest” and a video titled: “Barbie’s Dirty Secret” (about an aging barbie doll who is a hoarder and makes garbage installations)—this show was largely about how much responsibility we have to make the jobs in recycling and waste management look attractive and enticing if we are to survive, in our post Opulent Culture.

Ghiorse continues to show large-scale portraits of haunted houses from New Orleans, begun in 2002, which she shows and sells on an ongoing basis.  Most recently in addition to haunted houses she paints dreamscapes and mysterious looking underwater landscapes which are made from india ink, gesso and other pencil and acrylic washes.  RECENTLY showing at the Community School of Music and Art in Ithaca, NY(2020) titled: “Dwelling in My Soul//////Black, the color.”   And the Southern Vermont ART CENTER, in Manchester, VT--title Always Open, with garbage installation no.5: Black a l'interieure: Polling Place.  The paintings are all about the comfort and safety of the color black, and chasing clouds and light.  With the installation speaking directly to Social JUSTiCE & POVERTY.  

Lastly, Ghiorse has often helped organize and donated paintings for fundraisers—for the Radical Alliance of Women in Afghanistan in 2002, to the Epilepsy Foundation in 2005.  She continues to participate regularly in Fundraising Activities, such as Gabrielle’s ANGEL’s for cancer research or for the Local Library.  

Charlotte Ghiorse sometimes works as an astrologer and clairvoyant, occasionally hosting parties, she lives in Ithaca NY with her two sons, and daughter.

YOU can also Purchase Books at under the name Garage14 blurb.com