Professor Carlson holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Memphis College of Art in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as bachelor’s degrees in visual arts and biblical studies from Northwestern College in Roseville, Minnesota. His art has been featured in exhibitions in Tennessee, Michigan and Maine.

Professor Carlson previously was a visual arts instructor and interim director of the visual arts department at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan. Other teaching experience includes service as an adjunct instructor at the Memphis College of Art and the University of Memphis. He has worked as an illustrator and gallery assistant and has participated in the studio program of the Minnesota Museum of Art; a blacksmithing workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Craft in Deer Isle, Maine; in an independent residency at the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada; and in the Foundations Instruction Think Tank of the Art Institute of Chicago.