"You don't have to be an avid naturalist to love this poignant book. David M. Carroll is almost unique in his ability to capture nature equally well with his paintbrush, with carefully selected words, and with detailed scientific observations. In Self-Portrait with Turtles he brings to life the crucial moments that have shaped his passion and his talents: his early years in the Old Swamp; the teacher who told him, contrary to everything he had heard, that art is the only thing that matters, the only thing that lasts; his growing sense of the dichotomy between the nature he knew firsthand and the biology he was taught in the classroom; his years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where he got to know the turtles of the Fens, including one giant snapper he wrestled to shore and carried in a wheelbarrow to his studio for a portrait session; his brief career as a teacher; and his decades scraping out a living as an artist, raising three children on a shoestring. He is, as Annie Dillard has said, 'A madman, a genius, a national treasure, ' and in Self-Portrait with Turtles he tells us how he got that way"--Publisher's description.