I believe in Angels. Maybe it's because strange things happen sometimes that make me believe angels exist. Maybe it's because my Mother has always loved and collected cherubs and other angelic figurines, and she has always told me that I have a guardian angel looking after me when she's not around.  Yep, I really do believe in Angels.
      So, when the Edmond Chamber of Commerce first told me about the infamous Angel House, I was very intrigued.
      "It's been around for a couple of years," said  Cindy from the Edmond Chamber of Commerce. "It's the gallery of C. Butler Pendley. She's an artist who paints angels, and she's really good. There's also a cute little gift shop in there. You ought to go over there to check it out."
      I made my first visit to the Angel House on a Friday afternoon. The crowd was unreal. People were everywhere running around the house setting up lights and preparing wassail on the front porch for a live radio broadcast. I proceeded with caution through the busy house to meet the artist and owner herself, Catherine Pendley. I was extremely nervous that I wouldn't  find her with all the people, but I knew her right when I saw her. She has a gentle face with caring green eyes. Her long, carefree blonde hair was loosely secured at the base of her neck. She was laughing casually at something someone said holding a big vase of irises. She looked like an angel herself. I interrupted her laughing to introduce myself, and she was incredibly friendly. Catherine and I hit it off immediately. We made plans for the following week to talk about her, the house, and the "Angels."
     I asked Catherine first about the house. "I want to make something clear, "she said "The reason why this is called the Angel House is because the original owners were named Angel. Mr. John Angel was a banker here in Edmond, and he bought the house in 1907. His son Hill and Hill's wife Daisy owned the house until 1971. That's the real reason why this is called the Angel House."
      Catherine bought the old house in 1995 from the Oklahoma Abstract Company. The first thing you notice when walking into the Angel House is not the house itself but all the stuff that is in it. Every inch of wall hangs a gorgeous painting (Catherine's work, of course) and every table displays a beautifully designed arrangement of gifts, trinkets and ornaments.
      "I didn't really intend on having such a shop," Catherine explains. "I was originally looking for an art studio. I was creating most of my work out of my garage. So we started looking at all of the old little houses around here. When my realtor told me about the Angel House being put up on the market, my first thought was, 'No way, are you kidding?' But David and I finally took a look at it, and of course, I feel in love with it."
      When Catherine and David bought the old house it needed some work. They built a French Gothic fence around the front yard. They also planted the most amazing garden you have ever seen that includes two ponds and an herb garden. Even with the winter weather approaching the garden is still as fragrant as it was in the Spring. And while strolling through this tiny bit of heaven, you can see angel statuary in the most appropriate places to keep you company.
      Although Catherine is originally from Oklahoma she has been everywhere. She lived in St. Louis, Indianapolis and Atlanta before she and her husband finally decided to make Edmond, Oklahoma their permanent home.
      After graduating from Northwest Classen High School, she started studying interior design attending the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University. After she married her husband, David Pendley, they moved to St. Louis where David was transferred. Catherine put off her studies in St. Louis where she had her three children, Happy, Joy and Noel.
      After the birth of her third child, David was transferred again and the family moved to Indianapolis. This is where Catherine discovered her artistic self and met nationally known watercolorist Floyd Hopper.
      "After graduating from Marion College, I met a wonderful watercolor artist named Floyd Hopper. I did post graduate work with him for the next six years. He was a great artist and a wonderful teacher. He taught me how to see light and shadow, and he also taught me how to see the sky and the trees. He was a generous man," Catherine says sadly. "He gave so much of himself. He wasn't ever afraid to hold anything back. He taught me so much."
      Catherine watched and learned from Mr. Hopper for years, and she kept in touch with Mr. Hopper until he died in 1986.
      In 1973 Catherine's family moved again, this time to Atlanta, Georgia. "I liked Georgia the most. In Atlanta
 I really learned to appreciate the architecture, especially the old train stations." While living in Atlanta Catherine started on a collection of watercolor paintings of old train stations and other architectural images.
      "An artist is a reflection of who, what and where they are. I was so taken by the history and the architecture of the Old South, and so that's what I created. The series of the old Savannah shotgun houses and the old Atlanta train stations where inspired by my experiences there."
      After visiting friends in the Edmond area, Catherine and her family decided it was time to make somewhat of a permanent home. They move back to Oklahoma in 1980.
      Catherine has always enjoyed the watercolor medium, but in 1985 she took a liking to etching and embossing. "I really like etchings because it's in between a lithograph print and an original piece. It's a copy, like a lithograph print. However each one is different like an original piece."
      Between 1982 and 1989 Catherine started creating etchings with an American- Indian flair.  "David, the kids, and I were spending a lot of time in New Mexico, and again, that environment inspired me. Art is one individual's perception of the world." These creations are now on display in the Southwest Room which is upstairs in the Angel House.
     She started her infamous angel etchings eight years ago. "At first when I started the embossed angels, I had many complaints that you couldn't see the image," explains Catherine. "But I like the metaphor this creates. Unless you hold the piece in just the right light, you can't see the angel. And you have to be looking for it, just like real angels." Since 1989 Catherine has created a new angel etching every year, and you better believe that people all over the country anticipate her new addition every year.
      When Catherine is not busy counting inventory for her shop or creating new masterpieces, she enjoys spending time with her four grandchildren, Sarah, Austin, Willa Catherine, and Issac. Her grandchildren have also inspired her create new pieces.
      "Watching my mother, Willa Catherine and Joy working out in the garden inspired my angel etching 'Touched By Angels."
      Her husband David is probably one of her biggest supporters. "I think, in my generation, most women didn't think big. Women had very small vision, and even though I was raised by a woman with great vision, it still wasn't enough to do what I needed to do."
      David was the one who pushed Catherine to be an artist. "One day, Dave said to me, 'We need to go to Coconut Grove in Miami.' The Coconut Grove show is a big art show, one of the biggest. I didn't think there would be any way I could do it.  'That's for the big people,' I told him. He then asked me, 'How do you think they got to be that way?' Of course they're born that way," laughs Catherine and then very seriously she said, "he then told me, 'No Catherine, you need to go.' I couldn't have done anything without that vision to do something bigger."
      Well, as you might have imagined the Coconut Grove Show went extremely well. Since then she has ventured to other shows in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Boston, and Chicago where she was just as successful. She now supplies over 700 galleries across America with her original watercolor paintings, etchings and embossings.