"There is nothing like a challenge

to bring out the best in man."

- Sir Sean Connery

Carroll

"I began drawing meticulously as a 4½ y/o when my older sister perished in 1955 on Rebel Hill in Conshohocken, rural Philadelphia, PA. Watercolor (WC) helped me work thru it.

I've been painting 32 years.

"My 11th-Grade Art Appreciation teacher, Hall of Fame BGEN Woodrow Kessler, USMC (Ret.) wanted me to go to art school. BGEN Kessler's lessons are evident in my watercolors.

"My older sister's name was Helen, and it was a Brazilian heiress named Helena who arranged

for me to study WC with Alcaraz in Spain. 'Light' repeatedly titillated my life umpteen times.

"I loved poking around our woodland stream.

I loved canoeing the Pine Barrens, Boundary Waters and the Okefenokee Swamp. birdwatching, running Valley Forge NP, cycling inland Maine, hiking the Appalachian Trail and Yosemite NP, Anaconda Pintlar Wilderness, ...

Bicycle racing up and down the East Coast".

"I was a Principal Investigator at The Academy of Natural Sciences (Pre-dated the Smithsonian and the Franklin Institute). I was dazzled by the busloads of kids buzzing our exhibits and Moore art students drawing our panoramas. I left the Academy wanting to help people to love themselves and as a result take better care of our environment.

"I'll never forget the experience of visiting Dr. Barnes home and witnessing his cherry-picked collection. I love Homer's, Marin's, John Singer Sargent's, Audubon's, O'Keeffe's, Rockwell's, Hopper's Cape Cod watercolors and Jackson Pollack's drip oil paintings.

"You wouldn't believe the story of how I learned to paint clouds! So too, the shades

of green, the big dog story, and the field of sunflowers. Alcaraz was extremely tough.

I push the limits, regardless.

[Painting 6:30 AM to 10 PM 7 days a week, there are stories, the stories behind the paintings and poems. Carroll demands excellence but expects virtuosity from himself. He quips "Carpe diem"!]

"Daylight is essential to my painting process.

Colors are vibrant, ennobling, and fearlessly blend. I was especially proud of my Holy Land custom calendar series for IFCJ in Chicago. Art has profound insights both microscopic and

macroscopic, as do all of my watercolors.

Rare in the last 500 yrs. We dined at a nice restaurant on Cedar Springs in Dallas. I showed Alcaraz my finished Purple Thistles. 'Come to Spain and I'll teach you to do what I do.' 

I was accepted as his first 'personal student'.

How many in 500 yrs of art history?!? 2 or 3?

I see what others do not see. A 160 IQ Yale MFA and university museum curator called me 'Genius' and 'Tiger' with a higher IQ than hers. Picasso was 175.

I Never Know What Might Happen

"A DFW businessman told me,

'This [Carroll] will hang between my 2 Picassos and a Chagall on my cattle ranch.'  ".

"The art on your walls quietly shapes your empathy, creativity and critical seeing. You transform traditionally and holistically.

Art, science and nature can and do coexist.

Learn to dance on the corpus callosum.

Learn to truly listen. Build bridges!

I'm proof.

"I give back to my community.

I made 5,000 S/N lithographs of 4 Prismacolor drawings of beautiful north Arkansas and gifted them to DFW hospital patients. Dr. Ron J. Anderson told me he envisioned my drawings

in every public hospital nationwide. Phew! I donated about 70 watercolors to north Texas

hospitals and self-published 2,500 Ode to Joy journals - which I donated. There were more.

All 100% without restriction.

Art Is a Revelation

"Prin. #1: I must see and feel 'the landscape' firsthand and listen. I envision hundreds of concepts in milliseconds, then sketch the geometrically and spiritually sound ones on drafting or watercolor paper. I choose.

I need a confident lady in my life".

"I petted a panther, a nesting dove and

angry dogs. I feel like Monty Roberts, Buck Brannaman, or St. Francis of Assisi!

"I like American history".

- Kevin Costner

"I was named in honor of our Carroll County next - door neighbor, a signer of the Declaration of Independence (1776) - We sailed into Maryland on the Lydia from Burgundy, France -

Our patriarch boarded the tall ship as Burgund and disembarked as Burgoon.

One son enlisted under Gen. Washington.

Washington encamped on Rebel Hill (Where we lived. When I was six, I used to have a catch on our driveway with my dad. I learned to ride a bicycle across the road in Calvary Cemetery when I was 7 y/o.) on his frigid march to overwinter in Valley Forge. I lived in a rural three-story fieldstone house built by Giffith Jones in 1751, Charlestown Township, 28 miles southwest of Philadelphia, west of Valley Forge,

surrounded with my dad's antique collection.

"I am grateful to all who helped me along the way. I am an optimist. My life counts. Thank you."

[Born in 1951 at CHOP where his mom taught Pediatrics. His PBK mom's family was medical doctors. His dad was a WWII Navy veteran and a world-famous dermatologist seeing MLB, NBA superstars, other doctors, wealthy elite, and blue collar factory workers. He received many standing ovations for his medical school lectures. He served at CVIM until his death at age 91, when his nightmares finally ended.

 His dad loved old trees.

His dad was a collector.

His South Dakotan mom loved the Lakȟóta.

She loved her grandchildren.

She loved nature and birdwatching.

She loved Longwood Gardens.

Their home, facilities and land were immaculate.

Each was philanthropic and a conservationist. Each was 'pioneer tough', hardy and resilient.

They knew the value of 5¢.

Both were very, very hard working.]

"For it to be that there must have been the greatest freedom of the material to move about in it and to establish relations in it regardless of time and space, previous relation, and everything but affinity."

- Robert Lee Frost

Paraphrasing American poet Robert Lee Frost, "I have miles to go before I sleep".