Art on the run makes a sprint toward success
By M.M. Cloutier
When Sue Carlson arrived at a Palm Beach home a few years ago to conduct an art program at a party, the waiting students included one in a diaper.
Thanks to Carlson - surprised at first, then aflutter with art projects and kiddie lingo - that diapered babe is now a 4-year-old artiste-in-the-making.
Chalk it up to Carlson's ability to excite anyone about art - even an infant who doesn't know her, can't understand a word she's saying and is probably more apt to eat crayons than draw with them.
A couple of years ago, in a van tattooed with a log loosely depicting Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night painting, Carlson, a former private-school art teacher who also taught language arts and social studies for gifted children, took her act on the road - and it has taken her from one Palm Beacher's home to another, among others.
Last summer, Carlson launched a summer camp, extended for weeks because of its popularity. Now, winter camps are planned for kids off from school during the holidays. And Carlson says she hopes to open a gallery where kids can display and sell their art.
One afternoon in her studio, Carlson, who also partners with nonprofit organizations to create collaborative artworks for auction, ogles the children's artwork blanketing the wall, tables and shelves. One wall is covered with various versions of Blue Dog, the icon of George Rodrigue. Dogs are close to Carlson's heart - especially her two English cocker spaniels, 15-year-old Mister, and 5-year-old Phancey Pants, a retired champion show dog.
"Everything has gone so well," says Carlson, who holds a fine art degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. (as well as graduate work in gifted studies) and whose husband, Phillip, is the director of government contracts at Kennedy Space Center ("he's an MBA and very analytical!").
"The name Art Van Go has been a much bigger recognizable 'commodity' than I would have dreamed," Carlson explains. "Kids and parents use it in so many cute ways. At one party, a father said to his son, "Go over there and do some Art Van Go." Another little boy said he wouldn't be 'art van going' next week because he was 'going away.' Then Carlson recalls how a teacher told her that in class she asked if anyone knew what Van Gogh's first name was. Says Carlson, "A studio student of mine responded, 'Art'."