Artist Mary Katherine Carlson, known as Kathy Carlson, died on Dec. 26 in Oak Park, California, just shortly after she had been diagnosed with liver cancer. She was 74 years old. She and her husband, William Carlson, made St. Thomas their home from 1993-2008. During one of their many summer sailing trips to the Virgin Islands from the east coast, she applied to teach math at Antilles School. After two years of teaching, she concluded her 25-year teaching career.
Kathy then returned to her first love, painting. She had studied life drawing and painting at the Arts Student League in New York and at the University of Buffalo before she earned a masters degree and pursued her career in teaching math. Throughout life wherever she went she sketched, and she began painting from the sketches she had completed on the annual sailing trips. She became recognized for her way of capturing a way of life that has passed in the Virgin Islands, but it is a way of that is still lived down the island chain. She first displayed her paintings at the St. Thomas Yacht Club and then at Sunny Caribbean Art Gallery in Tortola. In St. Thomas, Kathy began showing at Mango Tango Art Gallery and participating in the Caribbean Color Exhibitions. In 2004, she enjoyed a solo exhibition at Devonish Art Gallery in Anguilla. In St. Croix, she exhibited at the Good Hope shows and at the St. Croix Landmarks Museum Store, Design Works. After she moved to California, she returned for shows in the Virgin Islands. She mastered many styles; each style found collectors who appreciated her talent.
Kathy praised Tom St. Vincent di Coi for his guidance in painting. While she enjoyed working in studio space with W.B. Thompson, Brian Murphy and Amanda Arguello, she once commented that artists must discover alone. “It’s a solitary journey, but a rewarding one.”
The Carlsons rented for a time in California but eagerly looked forward to buying their own home. That endeavor in the thriving area in which they chose to live took over three years. To celebrate their new home, Kathy spent her last summer landscaping to put in a magnificent garden. When she painted floral compositions, each work brought form, texture and color together with her signature luminosity. She delighted in using the same ideas of coherent structure in designing and planting the most spectacular garden in the neighborhood.
She and her husband moved to California so they could be near her daughter and her two granddaughters. She considered her contribution to educating students in mathematics significant and her recognition as a fine artist satisfying, but nothing was more important to her than family. She relished her experience of being both a great wife and mother, and of being an extraordinary grandmother. She observed that family relationships became more important as she aged, enriching life better than any accomplishment.
Survivors include her husband, William Carlson; her daughter, Nancy Lee; and her two granddaughters: Elizabeth and Madaline Lee. She leaves behind several brothers and sisters, including her youngest sister, Margaret Miller, with whom she shared a special bond. She will be missed by numerous friends in the art world including Amanda Arguello, Jane Coombes, Mel McCuddin, Brian Murphy, W. B. Thompson and Dana Wylder. She is survived by the many students she taught to appreciate and to master mathematics.
Correspondence may be sent to Mr. William Carlson, 304 St. Thomas Drive, Oak Park, CA 91377.
