Carol Ann Rasmussen creates recognizable subjects stylized through the use of repetitive patterns creating fanciful forms based on nature. She has learned to convey the essense of form through use of powerful shapes, contrasting colors, and unexpected twists that unify the composition. Her sculpture is known for a series of dogs, fish and birds, whereas her paintings tend toward surreal landscapes, occasionally interspersed with fanciful botanicals. The paintings reveal jewel-like colors of high intensity which have been washed onto a specially glossed matrix material, upon which the alcohol inks flow into one another. Rasmussen is a pioneer in this art form.

Rasmussen can be described as an artist heavily influenced by travel. Born in Missoula, Montana in 1941, she left home at the age of 18 and spent the next two years exploring the cosmopolitan atmosphere of San Francisco, California. She moved back to Montana and married Dave Rasmussen, a mining engineer. They settled and started their family in Butte. Carol Ann soon followed her husband and his work to south America. After two years working in Chile, they returned to the US to settle on an Indian reservation near Laguna, NM, Where they lived for the next 7 years. It was here that Rasmussen became interested in art - folk art in particular- attracted by her environment and the native culture. Her handcrafted arts became a local hit, and the Smithsonian requested one of her modified patterns for display in the national museum.

The Rasmussen family later moved on to Carlsbad, where Carol Ann studied various arts and lectured at New Mexico State University on the psychology of color. Other moves followed to Colorado and Virginia, then on to Las Vegas, Nevada where she studied under Tom Coleman for the next six years while developing her interests in glazes and formulating her own coloring styles. Coleman and his work had a major influence on her life. In a personal interview, Rasmussen commented on his teaching philosophy. "Tom taught me to be self-expressive - and I am able to do that without a lot of formal training."

In 2004, she and her husband settled in the mountains of western Colorado. Since that time, she's deepened her studies in clay sculpture under the tutelage of Daphna Russell, in the small town of Cedaredge. "I was at home with color,"she says. "I was always looking for my niche. The art world is the place where I fit. I belong here."

While living in Cedaredge, Rasmussen developed her own methods of ink painting; a type of alcohol wash and overlay of colored inks that respond in unusual patterns on a specially treated medium. In her artist's brochure, she points out that "color has always been my passion, whether I am making clay sculpture or pottery, or painting in alcohol inks. Alcohol inks have given me another avenue for introducing an array of color in a two-dimensional form of art."

Rasmussen has displayed her work at the Coleman Studio in Las Vegas, Nevada and at the Foothills Art Center in Golden, Colorado. She was also juried into the Contemporary Clay Bienniel 2008 Exhibit at the Art Center in Grand Junction, Colorado. Throughout regional art exhibits, Carol Ann's art pieces have won awards and received critical acclaim.

In her brochure, Rasmussen writes "My feelings are externalized in the making of works of art that express my joy of using color and/humor as a vehicle to enjoy the best parts of my day. I first experienced this joy of color in a class at the University of Montana with Rudy Audio, mixing the pigments on my palette, realizing that there are no limits to the experience of color. Later, I found expression in the chemistry of glazes and textural work with clay. I celebrate my life in making art."

Carol Ann Rasmussen's work is currently on exhibit throughout Colorado, at The Stonehenge, in Georgetown, Around the Corner in Montrose, and The Creamery Arts Center in Hotchkiss.