Lars Carsen, a.k.a. Fred Tullis, was born in 1950 in Toledo, Ohio, and lived in Michigan until the age of five. After attending various boarding schools, Tullis received his B.A. in Visual Arts at Princeton University and began his career as a professional artist in 1973, shortly thereafter leaving to study in Denmark. Tullis then returned to the U.S. in 1978 and settled down in the Southwest, furthering his studies at Arizona State University, and subsequently displaying his work nationally and internationally in exhibits and in private and corporate collections.