Artist

Linda Olson

Nationality

American

North Dakota Slides

Preview

Date of Work

2023

Status

Stored

Artist Bio

Linda Olson has taught at Minot State University since 1990. She enjoys the challenges that come with each new semester. Olson has worked extensively documenting Native American rock art sites in the United States since 1988. Documentation is presented for exhibition with interpretive text panels detailing recording techniques, rock art imagery and researched information about the images. Linda Olson was raised in McHenry County, North Dakota. Olson graduated from Drake High School with Honors, and from Minot State University Cum laude with majors in art, English and psychology. Olson earned a Master of Arts, Magna cum laude, in 1987 from the University of Montana and a Master of Fine Arts, Magna cum laude, from the University of North Dakota in 1990. Regional galleries have exhibited Olson's artworks. Nationally known jurors have included Olson's work in juried exhibitions. Olson has work in several public collections including the North Dakota Council on the Arts, the Skien, Norway Art Center, the University of North Dakota, North Dakota State University PEARS Collection, and Minot State University, as well as in many private collections. Olson is well known for her rock art documentation, and several of her artworks have been included in publications.

Additional Information

Commemorative digital print created for 'home.', a UND MFA alumni exhibition that took place in January and February of 2024 at the University of North Dakota Memorial Union Gallery. Twenty slides of nature and infrastructure in North Dakota assembled together.

Artist Statement:

Rocks, often those found on North Dakota's plains, are the inspiration for my Metamorphosis series. These rocks and the imagery suggested by prehistoric petroglyphs and pictographs, are the inspiration through which I have expressed the mystery of time's passing. Place is the intuitive synthesis of personal experience centered on North Dakota, my lifelong home.

Artworks bring together a variety of personal experiences conveyed through imagery:

first, from North Dakota's glacial till, a grayish-beige, gourd-like stone with iron markings;

second, a hike to a pictograph site on a windy, sunny, day;

third, a downpour, not only rain, but also images, experiences;

fourth, a kaleidoscope that is my life, blending and abstracting images; and

fifth, the art that is the net that catches all that I am.

Condition

Excellent

Rights

Images are provided for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced for commercial use. Images may be protected by artist copyright. A credit line is required to be used for any public non-commercial educational purpose. The credit line must include, “Image courtesy of the University of North Dakota.”