Delia Dante Fine Art Gallery: Grant Olsen
|
The Radiant Light of Love Pours Forth
Grant Olsen graduated with a BA in Literature from Boise State University in 1999. His current project started out as whittling as he sat on his front porch. The start of the pandemic came as Idaho was experiencing what felt like unprecedented late winter/early spring storms, so there were a lot of sticks and branches in his yard. As he sat on his front porch talking on the phone he would peel bark, slowly amassing a pile of stripped sticks and branches, which he realized would look nice sanded. After sanding them, painting followed. This process refined itself over a few attempts, and the lines got simpler and cleaner, the process became more meditative as Grant became more familiar. One day in a breathwork therapy class the teacher started a guided meditation and asked Grant to remember a time when someone offered him genuine and unconditional love, and he remembered a time when someone he deeply love asked to meet him downtown. When he was about to get in line to order something for her, she said she didn't need anything, she just wanted to hear his voice and see his face. Then the teacher directed him to take that memory and make it into a seed and then to plant it. He dug a hole and gently placed that seed within it. Moments later, he saw little sprouts coming from the ground. He envisioned his trees growing out of those holes. Grant hopes for the viewer is for them to experience a little of the meditation, joy, and love that he experienced in making them. https://www.instagram.com/mrgrantolsen/ |