Charlie Paynter was born in Kansas City in 1938 and graduated from Paseo High School. He was employed at the Kansas City Star for 55 years, where he worked in the mailing room and other positions, and for the 10 years before his retirement was in charge of supplies. He has won every employee service and customer satisfaction award that the Star provided.

He became friends with an art dealer, Susan Lawrence, and began accompanying her to museums, art galleries, openings and other art-related events. He had the opportunity to see what artists could do, and often said: “I could do that, or better.” He retired from the Kansas City Star in 2008 and began making sculptures from his vast (over 6000) collection of bottle openers that he had been collecting since around 1991.

He has made little character sculptures and two-dimensional wall pieces from bottle openers, wire, and found and recycled objects that he gets from friends and finds at thrift stores. He has made a series of local musicians. Whenever there is a wedding, he makes sculptures for the bride and groom. He has worked on a series of all the states. He has made a group of scenes from the Bible. He had made many building facades and a series based on the alphabet.