Tina K. Olsen
I was born in 1943 and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. I have always loved nature and the countryside. I remember first the New England landscape where I grew up. Natural forms became abstractions in my mind’s eye. On trips in the car I would stare at the countryside. I would sit in trees all day and walk through the woods. I knew many of the trees and mushrooms. I slept best on the ground. When I was 15 we went camping across the country. I found nature to be an asylum from a troubled family life.
My heritage plays a part in the meaning of my work. My father’s people, Mennonites, were persecuted as conscientious objectors and came to Pennsylvania from Germany. This history has instilled in me a strong sense of the need to be in the world, but not of the world. So, it made sense to me as a painter to keep a distance from mainstream culture.
Living as an artist feels meditative and communal – and keeps me connected with other creative people. When I paint, sometimes I am close in the embrace of everything. My work is my vision becoming one with my hand. I usually feel clearer and calmer after painting. And for me there is freedom in abstract art, a bigger space and room to breathe. When I meditate I also experience room to breathe freely—the kind of room I want to create in my paintings.
I live with my partner Schuyler Gould in Brattleboro and spend the summers at South Pond in Marlboro, VT. We have two daughters and four grandchildren.
