When Charlize started tapping maple trees 35 years ago, she appeared to the world as a different person with a different name. In those days she worked as a construction worker, then a shop teacher, then a home builder. “I learned to accept what I had, which was being a male,” she says. Only when she reached her seventh decade did she find it possible to express her true identity as a transgender woman. In retirement, Charlize’s work is now on her farm, Sweet Sourland, tucked away in a still quiet corner of New Jersey. Here, in addition to producing syrup and raising sheep, she pursues a lifelong passion for creating art. Her specialty is colorful geometric designs painted on unusual canvases such as glass and wood. Meditative pieces that inspire introspection.
When Charlize started tapping maple trees 35 years ago, she appeared to the world as a different person with a different name. In those days she worked as a construction worker, then a shop teacher, then a home builder. “I learned to accept what I had, which was being a male,” she says. Only when she reached her seventh decade did she find it possible to express her true identity as a transgender woman. In retirement, Charlize’s work is now on her farm, Sweet Sourland, tucked away in a still quiet corner of New Jersey. Here, in addition to producing syrup and raising sheep, she pursues a lifelong passion for creating art. Her specialty is colorful geometric designs painted on unusual canvases such as glass and wood. Meditative pieces that inspire introspection.
Jared Flesher
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