Ken and Cathy Carlson have been in Colorado since 1978.
“I was born in California and Ken was born in Iowa,” Cathy said. “We met at Denver University in the 1960s.”
They married in 1970 and moved back to Iowa for a short time before wondering why they were there and moving back to Colorado.
“I taught third and fourth grade,” Cathy said. “We were in Denver for a while.”
Eventually they settled in Rifle. After their retirement, they had more time for something they had enjoyed while traveling: photography.
“We enjoy taking them and hope we can show them to someone,” Cathy said. “You want to capture the things you see in nature.”
The Carlsons have traveled throughout the United States, taking photographs in Arizona, Louisiana and New England, and are planning more trips.
“We’re thinking about going to Canada and Minnesota next year,” Cathy said. “We’ve been to most of the national parks in the West.”
Her photographs include petroglyphs, herons, fall foliage, hot air balloons, misty lakes, and a weeping angel statue in Louisiana.
“There are only three in the world,” Ken said. Cathy added that the other two are in Italy.
The Carlsons have been selling their photographs for over 20 years.
“We started digitizing in 2005,” said Ken. “We’ve been doing it for 23 years.”
Cathy said that they have been taking photos for a while now.
“We do it for the memories.” Cathy smiled at the photo with the leaves. “We’re thinking about displaying photos in thrift stores, and we have some photos in the hospital.”
Cathy has notably traveled outside the U.S. to Peru, where she has photographed Machu Picchu, Spain, and Portugal. They have both been to Costa Rica and Cancun, but Ken is not as fond of international travel as Cathy is.
“I’d love to go to Egypt. We’ve talked about going to the Greek islands,” Cathy said. Ken said if he puts it on paper, he’ll be there.
“This guy had a 3-pound pizza pan full of crawfish in front of him,” Ken said of a restaurant visit in Louisiana. “It’s a constant rhythm; you pick it up, you pinch it, you pull it, you eat it. You could make a song about how he ate it.”
Although they submitted their photos to dealers and places like Bookcliffs Arts Center in Rifle, where some of their pieces are now located, the couple didn’t see many new people at the shows.
“The same people come to the dealer shows,” Ken said. “There aren’t as many anymore. We didn’t find any in Glenwood, so we go to Silt. The one in New Castle stopped. They are the most gracious dealer personalities we’ve ever met.”
At one of these shows, a friend recommended that he make collages from a series of photographs he was showing.
“He said, ‘They would look much better if you put them on top of each other. Honestly, how much of this photo is really worth seeing?’ and I thought, ‘Oh. I guess that’s true.'” Ken pointed to the collages he had made of the caves in Arizona and the statue of President Lincoln.
For these collages, Ken layers four smaller photos over a large one and may add an additional element to the piece, such as a small clock.
Another work of art by him was hot air balloons.
“This piece is absolutely unique,” he said.
The background is a photo of the sky with certain hot air balloons cut out from other photos and placed on the background. They stand out slightly because the balloons are attached to the piece of cardboard.
“You can’t even begin to put a price on it that reflects what you did to make it,” Ken said, adding that he wouldn’t do it again but does make other pieces out of driftwood.
“You can’t go to the Northwest without finding driftwood on the beaches,” he said. “I thought I’d put flowers, birds, butterflies and stuff on it. It’s fun to do something like that.”
The driftwood was decorated with plastic flowers, birds, leaves and anything else Ken finds that won’t break easily to decorate it. The driftwood pieces follow color themes like yellow and orange.
“But that’s what we do,” Ken said of the photos. “That’s our art.”
Bookcliffs Arts Center is open by appointment to view or purchase Cathy and Ken’s photography and artwork. Call 970-625-1889 to schedule an appointment.
