This year, 2020, was going to be a milestone year for Minneapolis artist CHARLES ALBERT THYSELL. On February 7, Charlie texted his sister Elizabeth Atly: "yesterday marked a strange, but wonderful anniversary of sorts. and now I am one day older than mom was. . . the last of us to cross that bridge.". . .signing off with a heart emoji.  Three weeks later, on February 28, Charlie turned 70 years old. 

The following week, March 6, things took an ominous turn, as the lung cancer that Charlie had thought conquered in Summer 2019 was found to have metastasized to his brain. Given the choice between a radiation regime that could offer extended life with vastly diminished quality or letting the cancer run its course and contacting Hospice, Charlie considered that a non-choice; and the cancer quietly, and aggressively overtook his life force.

A Minneapolis artist of considerable talent and reputation, Charlie enjoyed a wide circle of friends and admirers, and a smaller circle of very close friends, who became, with his sister, Kathryn Stanville, a special support group scheduling their time to provide a 24-hour watch over Charlie's last days and weeks. This group of 8 to 10 individuals, mostly female, and some of whom had some medical training, nicknamed themselves "Charlie's Angels," and saw to it that Charlie was fed, clean, appropriately medicated, loved and cared for.

It was a heartwarming expression of loving friendship, and however much a distant friend or relative may have wished to participate in his care, options for long-distance travel were being daily reduced, as the coronavirus threat loomed ever larger. Charlie was clear in his choice of end-of-life options, that he wished for a "natural burial," and arrangements were made with Summit Funeral and Cremation, for burial to take place at Prairie Oaks Memorial Eco Gardens. As Charlie's window of time was narrowing, "social distancing" came into being, dictating that no more than ten individuals would be able to attend his outdoor funeral ceremony.

Charlie left his body behind on April 6, one month after the cancer came to claim him; and his friends bathed and artfully and lovingly wrapped his body in a beautiful orange woven wool shroud. He was transported to Prairie Oaks, where the grave had been dug, and he was placed above it on a row of supporting beams. The ceremony began on time and was videotaped live for 'virtual' viewing; at its end, family and friends lowered him on ropes to his final rest, and flowers were strewn over him to accompany his journey.

Charlie's life journey began in Hawley, Minnesota, a farm community of some 1200 souls that has come to be considered a suburban extension of the Fargo ND/Moorhead MN urban hub.

Born February 28, 1950, the youngest of four children of Dr. Vernon Duane Thysell and Nanette (Abt )Thysell, Charlie was also the only boy, and he played that to his advantage, roaming widely and testing limits from an early age. His early forays into art were as mischievous as they were artful, such as "painting" a wall of his mother's bedroom with lipstick and, seeing her enraged reaction, saying innocently "But I thought you liked red!" Throwing darts at a sister's sculpture project -- a life-sized lead head mounted on a wood block -- drew such intense parental ire that he often later claimed that moment as his awakening to the idea that art had an inherent value.

When he was sixteen, Charlie toured Europe with his parents, the trip highlighted by a visit to his mother's first cousin, Otto Abt, a famous painter residing in Basel, Switzerland. Otto took the boy under his wing and offered him an invitation to come to Basel and study art. Charlie was interested, but not enough to overcome his parent's resistance to the idea. But the encounter made a lasting impression.

By this time, the Thysell family was living in Moorhead, MN. Charlie attended Moorhead High School, and began to work part-time at Rourke Gallery, graduating High School in 1968. He moved to Minneapolis to attend Minneapolis School of Art and Design. He soon concluded that the formal study of art was not for him; art for him was an action verb, and he never stopped making art, whether it was co-managing the Mahkahta Dance Academy in Fargo with his then wife Kathy Foss Bakkum, which included touring North Dakota with Plain People Children's Theater; composing and performing music mostly as a solo guitarist and vocalist, teaching art to kids as an Artist in Public Schools, and always drawing and painting. He lived his art.

Charlie moved back to Minneapolis in the 1980's, and thereafter devoted himself to working as a studio artist. He lived and worked with Margarita Sikorskaia, a classical figurative Russian painter for six years in the 1990s, and the two produced several works of art together from 1994 to 1997, painting on the same canvases and showcasing the creative symbiosis of two very different approaches. He showed his artwork in Minneapolis/St. Paul galleries and in several other American cities, and was a regular exhibitor at the Angela King Gallery in New Orleans' French Quarter.

It was learned on April 15 that Charlie not only was the semi-unofficial poet laureate of the town of Agincourt, Iowa, but that he had held that honor for several years unbeknownst to him or any of his followers. Sad to say, the news of this honorific arrived the day after his passing.

Charlie was preceded in death by his parents, Dr. Vernon Duane Thysell and Nanette Rose (Abt) Thysell, and one sister, Nancy Donato. He is survived by two sisters, Elizabeth Atly of Seattle, and Kathryn Stanville (Richard) of Minneapolis, four nieces, three nephews, many other relatives and his group of close friends.

Published on May 3, 2020