Artist Statement

Having experienced a childhood of poverty and religious over-discipline, I appreciate iconoclasts and rule breakers.  I love superheroes – not for their superpowers, but for their ability to overcome and shine despite the damage in their various back stories.  Filtered through my personal narrative, I explore what it means to be human, fallible, damaged, and yet victorious, even heroic.  I want to create a space where superheros pratfall, robots leer and grin, and imaginary creatures invite you into their world. 

My ceramic sculptures are colorful and mysterious, but friendly.  I love to create imaginary bees, worms, and insects as charming reminders of how much we need and love our essential pollinators. With this work, my wish is to inspire people to cultivate native plants and nurture our pollinators.  Another favorite sculpture subject – robots – mixes humanity with technology, and invites us to consider our relationship with technology.  Rather than cold precision, my robots are psychedelic, charming, dirty, inept, and hoping for empathy. My ceramics have an intentionally handmade quality - glazed in colorful, painterly passages and then subjected to multiple firings. Glazes bubble, melt, and crack, spilling over the form, indicating vibrancy and vulnerability.

Artist Bio

Born in Texas, and living in Boston, Olson obtained her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.  She has exhibited locally and nationally, and is a Helen Blair Crosbie Sculpture Award recipient and Massachusetts Cultural Council grant recipient.

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