Carlson describes her inspirations as the “funky Surrealist tendencies of American art.” Here, “sixish" waves of hardened acrylic paint that resemble gray frosting are framed by flame-like tongues whose outlines are “piped” with a cake-decorating tool. Carlson’s work embraces the aesthetic power of decoration and asserts itself as an object, not as an imitation or reference to an object.
Born in Chicago, Carlson obtained her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (later the University of the Arts). Carlson was a pioneer in the Pattern and Decoration movement, which reclaimed traditionally feminine aesthetic activities as the basis for serious artistic endeavors. She has received numerous awards and grants, including four National Endowment for the Arts fellowships and a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship. Her work is in museum collections across the US, among them Woodmere, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
