Green owned Canyon Pottery Malibu. From her Bonsall Canyon studio, Green not only created her own art pieces, she taught pottery classes to scores of others throughout the years. Most of her students were adults. Green held a pottery show once a year to sell her art.
“A lot of locals would come and buy her stuff,” said her daughter, Kat Green. “A lot of people probably have her pieces in their houses.”
Green was commissioned by the now-defunct Malibu restaurant, The Godmother, to make mugs, bowls and other service items for the well-loved gathering spot. “She custom made soup bowls and mugs that said ‘The Godmother’ on them,” her daughter explained.
Green’s pottery was functional stoneware.
“My mom was an artist through and through and a teacher forever,” Kat Green said. “She had a lot of pride and passed it along to her students that there are no mistakes in art and that it should be used and enjoyed by people, not just sitting on a shelf somewhere. That was a big deal for her. She really wanted everybody to make things that people can use, that are dishwasher safe. She believed that art should be enjoyed.”
Green was born in 1945 in Walpole, Massachusetts. In her early 20s she was a Radio City Rockette. Green danced with the famous troupe for three years and later taught children’s dance classes.
She then married William Greenblatt. The couple had two children: singer/filmmaker Kat Green and actor James Marshall. The family moved to Malibu in 1982 when Greenblatt started a production company with Martin Sheen. That’s when Green became a full-time potter. She built a studio/barn on Bonsall Drive to work and teach.
In the last two years of her life, Green moved to Agoura to be closer to her children, who helped care for her.
“But Malibu is her home through and through,” said her daughter. “All of her friends are in Malibu.”
Green died after battling emphysema and cancer. She is survived by her two children, ex-husband, grandchild Jimmy Greenblatt and her many Malibu friends also known as “her honorary sisters.”
“They call themselves the Pottery Chicks although there is one man,” according to Kat Green. “They’re all Malibuites.”
Green frequently volunteered feeding the homeless in Malibu through various organizations. She was also a driver for Project Angel Food.
“She lived the life that she wanted — a full, satisfying life,” said her daughter. “She crossed over at 5:50 p.m. during a sun shower and rainbows surrounded by her two children and the Pottery Chicks. Always a teacher of life, Charlotte gave us all the profound gift of witnessing a human life transitioning to the spirit realm. It was amazing! She was so graceful and honored Mother Earth and the Butterfly as God to her.”
A Celebration of Life service will be held Mar. 20 at a yet to be determined location. For information contact kgreen@wonderflyfilms.com
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to The People’s Pottery Project.