Sentinels

Jim Carlson

Jim Carlson’s intaglio of oak trees in a California landscape reads like a portrait, each limb and leaf of the tree in the foreground as carefully wrought as an image of a loved one. He’s chosen a warm, brown-black ink to further render the scene as inviting as it would be to a lone hiker.

Carlson’s work from the 1980s often focused on rural scenes of the Northern California foothills and mountain terrains, often featuring abandoned barns and houses in whose age he found beauty. While working as a printmaker, a master printer at Gemini G.E.L., and as a printer for artist Joseph Mugnaini, Carlson also led visual arts programs in the California correctional facilities of Folsom, San Quentin, and Pelican Bay. Though officially retired in 2018, he continues to facilitate exhibitions and talks on the subject of art education for incarcerated people.