Born and raised in Virginia, Carol Strause FitzSimonds graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in art from Hollins College. She married a career military officer and moved so often she was termed “a traveling printmaker” in one newspaper article about her career. Carol has continued to study taking design, drawing, and printmaking classes at Olympic College in Bremerton, Washington, and the Art League School in Alexandria, Virginia, and workshops with master printmakers such as Carol Wax, Dan Welden, Daniel Heyman, and Nathan Kanofsky.
Carol’s work has been exhibited in numerous regional and national exhibitions across the United States and overseas in Australia, Czechoslovakia, China and Northern Ireland. Her award winning prints, drawings and artist books can be found in public and private collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Zimmerli Art Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, United States Library of Congress, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Newport Art Museum and New Britain Museum of American Art.
Carol worked as curator for Gallery 297 in Bristol, Rhode Island, and at Congress Street Gallery in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She teaches classes/workshops in printmaking for the Providence Art Club and other area organizations. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Managers of the Providence Art Club. The Art Club has honored her with the Art Club Medal and her silhouette painted on a wall to join the other silhouettes of past and present members.
She has served on the board of several art organizations including the Art League Rhode Island. Author of print articles for the Journal of the Print World and The Artist’s Magazine, Carol has achieved the rank of elected member in the Boston Printmakers, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, Audubon Artists Inc., Society of American Graphic Artists, American Artists Professional League, Printmakers Network of Southern New England, Art League of Rhode Island (founding member) and the Providence Art Club in Rhode Island.having