About the artist...

View Carol's 2022 Artist Talk and Tour.

View Carol's 2020 Artist Talk and Tour.

Tour Carol's Blanco home studio, and View her backyard birding observations.

View the virtual tour of Carol's 2018 show. 

Read the article in UT's Biodiversity blog about Carol's Tower Girl: Peregrine Falcon here and view the Tower Girl live cam here.

Read the review in ArtProfiler here.

View the virtual tour of Carol's 2016 show here. 

Carol gave a wonderful talk describing the duality of being a literary and visual artist. It is available for you to listen to on our blog.

Dawson aims to transform the perception of commonplace natural scenes into one of new wonder. She demonstrates how a small piece of our everyday world is filled with detail and life, turning the micro into macro. Dawson employs birds as well as botanicals as her subjects. She depicts the birds on a human-like scale. The effect not only captures their immediate beauty but lends each an inescapable presence. As iconic as birds have been throughout human cultural development--occupying an archetypal place in our psyches—they are often seen as small, distant creatures, forever flitting beyond reach. However, in Dawson’s work, they confront the viewer eye-to-eye, ensuring a new consideration. Dawson hopes that the viewer will perhaps feel as if he or she is facing an equal--a bird meeting another bird on its own ground--and remember that the conservation of this dwindling population is of primary importance to us. 

After studying English Literature and Anthropology at The University of Texas in Austin, Dawson went on to launch her writing career, live abroad in Europe and New Zealand, and formally train under the tutelage of painters Ray Vinella and John Koenig in Taos, New Mexico. She is the author of four critically acclaimed novels and two non-fiction books. In addition, she has published numerous articles in national magazines, while simultaneously exhibiting her watercolors in galleries and shows in New Mexico, Washington, and Texas. She has also served as the official Writer-in-Residence and Visiting Professor of Literature and Creative Writing at The College of Santa Fe, and continues to instruct writing workshops and classes.

Dawson has been focusing on watercolor for thirty years. Her visual work is represented in public and private collections across the country.