The Life of C.X. Carlson C. X. Carlson, born in Minnesota in 1902, left school in the seventh grade at 12 years of age to become a baker’s apprentice. He later worked in iron mines, lumber camps, and as a seaman for three years. Soon his talent for art drew him the Crane Technical College in Chicago and to the Chicago Art Institute, where he spent four years. Later he attended the National Academy of Design in New York for three years and the Art Students League in New York. He traveled to Antwerp and Munich and also studied under master artists. While in New York he met and studied with Gorkey, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. He taught art classes in figure study at the Art Student League. Locally he also taught classes at the York Art Association, the Jewish Community Center, and the Iris Club. He started the Octorara Art Association. His experience as an illustrator, cartoonist, mural painter, and teacher in New York City captured the attention of other artists and designers. He painted murals in the New Zealand building of the New York’s World’s Fair. He created Elsie, the Borden Company’s cow. He also did work for Ford and General Motors. His impact continued in the political arena during World War II. He was a staff artist and cartoonist for “On War Times,” a publication of the Pentagon and the Bureau of Public Relations. He spent two years painting, lecturing, and exhibiting in twenty-one American Republics and South American countries for the U.S. State Department for the Good Neighbor Policy. While in South America he completed more than 750 paintings as well as research for a book, which was never published. He is the author of a series of twenty art illustration books that sold millions of copies. He was commission to illustrate “Old Lancaster” and completed over 150 paintings of historical Lancaster buildings. Critics believe this series to be his finest works. During his lifetime he exhibited widely throughout the Americas. His paintings hang in well-known collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art In New York. He is listed in Who’s Who in Art and Who’s Who in the East.

C.X. moved to Lancaster County in 1947 and in lived in Kirk’s Mill near Quarryville. There he became a historical painter. He completed in his lifetime more than 15,000 paintings and uncountable drawings for friends, relatives, neighbors, and members of the art world.