“I’ve always been interested in art,” he said. “As a farmer things that have an artistic nature interested me. “

Born in 1934, Carlson grew up in Fort Dodge and spent his free time making birdhouses and masks out of gourds. He would take the extra gourds he grew and utilize them in his art.

“We were selling produce on the farm, gourds and pumpkins and things like that,” he said. “And I had so many gourds. I would have maybe 10 acres of pumpkins and squash and stuff to sell. And I had gourds, big hard shell gourds, and they were too nice to throw away. So I saved them. And after a while you get so many you’ve got to do something with them.”

“I made birdhouses galore, gave them away and I still had lots and lots of gourds,” he added.“So I just started making gourd masks. And they weren’t realistic. They were just something out of my imagination and this is what we got.”

-Messenger photo by Brandon Brueschke
This photo shows David Carlson in a replica military uniform. He has been a reenactor portraying United States soldiers like those who established Fort Clarke, later named Fort Dodge, in 1850.

Carlson said, “it’s one of those things that I did in the evening in the basement.”

“And I would be working down there and somebody would holler down there ‘It’s one o’clock time to go to bed,'” he said. “So then I’d quit and piece it together as it went on. I wanted to bring them upstairs and mother would say ‘they are nice, but they belong in the basement’.”

The masks that Carlson made all have beautiful colors and striking sculptural details. They all possess elements of mythology and folklore. One invokes the image of a trickster fox, while another is meant to be a representation of the Cardiff Giant. When discussing one, Carlson said it was reminiscent of “a giant feathered serpent in the jungle from Central America that ate people”

When asked about the intentionality behind these elements, Carlson said it “wasn’t a conscious choice, but that’s how it turned out. Each one is a little bit different, but they’re all kind of the same.”

Another hobby that Carlson had was war reenactments. Carlson has history with the Army, having been drafted sometime between the Korean War and the Vietnam War and being stationed in West Germany. When discussing how he got started doing them, Carlson said “I don’t know how I got into it. But we were trying to reenact the soldiers who came to Fort Dodge. And they were the same ones who were in the Mexican War. So it was quite easy to get their uniforms.”

-Messenger photo by Brandon Brueschke
One of many gourds David Carlson has turned into masks is displayed here.

One way his two hobbies blended together was in the form of a drum he would use during the reenactments.

Carlson said, “When we got it we wanted to get it painted like they would have, so we found a picture of one and we reproduced it.”

His artistic ventures also included making dolls out of gourds and painting them, as well as copying old book ads onto crates as decoration.

Carlson would normally give away his work, saying “I didn’t sell them because they’re my children”

When asked if he considered himself an artist, Carlson said, ” It’s a hobby. I think an artist would do something for his livelihood. And this was a hobby. It fit in well with farming because I wasn’t under any pressure to make them. I just did it and I kind of missed it when I couldn’t do it anymore.”

When asked for any last words on his work Carlson said “It’s kind of fun to have some of the stuff to look back on and, and kinda like kind of enjoy it.”

At 88 years of age, Carlson has brought beauty into the world with his work, and though unable to continue it, he gladly looks back on his artwork with nostalgia.