Responding to his passion for gourmet cooking and fine wines (he jests that the latter are a nice addition to the creative world), Carlson has not only joined in partnership with El Paso's Zin Valle Winery, but he also devotes an ever increasing share of his time to tending a thriving container garden which boasts 23 varieties of tomatoes and an amazing selection of fresh herbs.
Also a fitness advocate, the artist can often be found biking or swimming in his backyard lap pool. Carlson's devoted sidekick, a large German shepherd who answers to the name of Max, accompanies his master in the majority of these endeavors. In fact, when the Carlsons added a studio wing to their Upper Valley home, large window doors became a must so that Max could lie on the patio and maintain a faithful watch on his master working at the easel.
Blessed with an effervescent intellect and a wry sense of humor, Carlson is subtly akin to one of those television magicians who always have a new illusion to enthrall their audiences. Delighting in this unpredictability, the artist's subject matter has run the gamut from nineteenth century American realism and dramatic portrayals of the border's Hispanic culture to whimsical eggs and nutcracker figures, the latter drawn from the artist's own Germanic heritage.
"Good or bad, the constant comment is that I never do the same thing twice,” he jests. "My ideas come from anywhere and everywhere and I frequently suggest that brain damage is the source of good creative thinking. Clearing the slate is the real trick, however. Some subjects come to me at night while others float around in my mind as I bike. For me, painting involves two fundamental sides. The first is the skill and craft side: how to draw, mix paint, and complement colors - the foundation work. I've spent most of my life learning this. Now I concentrate on using the skill aspect to carry the creative."
At present, ideas bounce through Carlson's subconscious so rapidly that he laughingly relates, "I wish I could finish one painting without being distracted by other subjects that keep insisting I get to them as well."
No matter how diverse the inspiration, the common denominator in all Carlson paintings is a cleaver theme, which invites the viewer to interact with the piece rather than simply to admire "a pretty picture."
"I work by employing visual suggestion to create stories which allow the audience to find the humor in the situation or which might even make them slightly uncomfortable. For this reason, I purposely don't get into a discussion about what I had in mind because I want to challenge viewers to interpret what they see; to create the whole dialog in their own minds."
Being an instinctive artist, Carlson explains that he does not like to look at paintings and break them down technically.
"If a piece feels right, then it is. Rule number one is never ignore those feelings, ever. I'm not a fast painter so I can't afford the time to make mistakes. For this reason, I write down my ideas and live with them. Ideas that are really good just eat at you until you put them on canvas; conversely, unworkable ideas never see daylight."
This dedication to perfection is comforting for collectors who can rely on the fact they are purchasing the artist's best work at any given point in time. Reaffirming this, he comments, "During my career, I've painted almost 800 pieces, and few if any, have appeared for resale on the secondary market."
In lieu of preparatory sketches, Carlson makes verbal notes on ideas. "This allows me to keep the composition looser. When I know what I want, I draw my ideas directly on the canvas, and then begin to paint from there."
All Carlson's creations are hands-on from beginning to end. He builds custom stretcher bars, sized to each composition, and then stretches and gessoes the canvas in preparation for his work.
Using Belgian oils and linen canvas, which runs $1,000 per six yards, the artist explains, "I have an unspoken contract with my collectors to provide them with the finest quality available in both materials and my art."
Two works in progress focus on the subject of bullfighting. In "The Kill", viewers see the partial form of a costumed matador, sword in hand poised for the tense moment of the kill, while the second concentrates on the visual drama of the bold red cape set against a billowy background of swirling dust.
"What has always fascinated me is the dichotomy between the delicate embroidery, often flowers and religious scenes, on the matador's clothing and the aggressively, graphic violence of an occupation which is no longer even a part of modern society."
And what's next on the ebullient Carlson agenda? A captivating painting in the dining area depicting the face of a wide-eyed young boy peering excitedly out from the porthole of a space ship offers a sneak preview. Carlson's wife, Rosie, and her sister are working on a children's book, and "Massimo Discovers Life on Earth", is the first in a series of paintings which will serve as illustrations for the book.
Despite being one of the region's most admired artists, Carlson maintains a lighthearted approach to his art and life. He confides that early in his career the first of his now highly collectible "egg" paintings sold for $45.
"Subtracting the gallery commission and the cost of materials, my profit was $3. It took me 40 hours to do the painting so I made less than 10 cents an hour, but I'm up to over a dollar now," he jests. If you believe that, Carlson also has several bridges he would like you to consider buying.
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