Scott Carroll had a rare opportunity to experience art as a young boy. He discovered a most unusual garden along the banks of the creek where he played.

“I knew I was seeing something important,” Carroll said. Towering pieces of sculpture surrounded by live oak trees created an almost secret or ceremonial environment to the garden. “I didn’t learn until years later that the garden was owned by Ray Nasher, a prominent Dallas art patron.” The fascinating forms, he also later learned, were created by famous sculptors including Henry Moore and Alexander Calder.

This combination of silent garden and musical background from the creek were inspiring influences on young Carroll. “My work today reflects a keen observation of nature and fascination with water — how it sounds, feels, and its impact on the nature of the landscape.” However, he did not consider art as a career. Carroll was an athlete for the Jesuit High School in Dallas, where older team members recommended he take ceramics to make an easy “A” and keep his grades up. Carroll took the course all four years in school. He discovered that he saw things differently — through an artist’s eye — but still didn’t consider art as a career. He studied geology at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville his freshman year and worked on oil rigs in Alaska and the Gulf to earn money for college. He finished his degree at the University of Texas in 1984 … just in time for the oil industry to bottom out. He then joined the creative environment of Southern Magazine as a story editor. While working with the magazine, he met Diane Reilich at a wedding in San Francisco. She soon became his wife.