Meet M Pettee Olsen | Artist – Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with M Pettee Olsen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi M, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
In many ways a career as an artist chose me. I grew up in a creative and multicultural family. While both of my parents were scientists by day – my dad was a neurologist born in New York City, of French and English extraction, and my mother was a first-generation Greco-Albanian-American, and a bacteriologist – my parents met singing opera in the evenings. They sang with the Rochester Oratorio Society which accompanied the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, in New York. Remarkably, they managed to do it all. And, while my mother was also interested in fashion, my father took life drawing classes at the Memorial Art Gallery. Dinner table talk would range from rehearsals at The Eastman Theater, to ideas about designs for things my father wanted to build, to how a patient’s sense of the world completely changed as a result of changes to the brain. So, art and curiosity were not just a part of life, but a way of participating in and looking at the world.
My parents encouraged me in music, of course, as they thought art and music were essential to education. However, I was interested in directing, dancing, and making things. Mostly, I was in love with the movement and sense of freedom I experienced through dance. However, when I was invited by the American Ballet Theater to accompany them as a stand-in, in that pivotal moment I realized that what I was interested in pursuing lay beyond story-telling with the body. I was interested in more abstract things like states of awareness, and questioning perception through the language of art. I could also see that the toolsets in art weren’t extinguished so early on in life, as is the case with dance. So, I trained my sights fully on visual art and went on to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
At RISD I fell in love with painting, and soon after graduation, I moved to New York City, where I fell in love with the city and the people who seemed intent on living their lives in art at full throttle.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have always followed my own inner concerns with my art while keeping a bead on what’s happening in the world. How I arrived at the work I’m doing today has been over decades of experimentation. I’ve sometimes had dreams about the work I’m going to do next or new materials, and sometimes it’s through analysis that I recognize what my next moves are. I think I’ve always been interested in perception, in how we see the world and how our senses inform us in the most fundamental of ways. The mind’s nature is to cobble stories together. Yet, my most rewarding states of mind have been when I am not creating a story, or imposing value on anyone or anything, but witnessing the world as it is.
I’m interested in art that challenges habitual thinking. This is in contrast to a lot of art being made right now and distinguishes me from many in the art world today. I paint disrupted and jarred gestures, with color-shifting, luminous paint. I suppose I like to feel I’m part of a small flotilla of artists that include: Charlene Von Hyle, Albert Oehlen, Tom LaDuke, Tomori Dodge, and the late Jackie Saccaccio.
I think I’m where I am today by a crazy, unrelenting curiosity about what paint can suggest and where it can take us – perceptually emotionally, and intellectually. We can be transported if the work can take us there with qualities that call on deeply rooted associations, and if there’s something that has a little twist in expectations– something that makes you look twice – something familiar yet prompts the response, “Wait a minute, what the … oh, wow.”
The lessons I’ve learned along the way are to trust the rhythms in working. I told myself a long time ago that I didn’t believe in creative blocks. Therefore I don’t have them. There are just days I have to slog through and days when there’s an amazing flow. Finally, it’s important and energizing to connect with people that share similar concerns in art. Getting together with people who are thoughtful and supportive is essential. I am still good friends and am involved in projects with people I’ve known since art school.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Well, I sort of straddle two places – the West, and New York. So, it would depend on where we happened to be. If we’re in Colorado I’d take them to the various hot springs – and to my favorite, Ute’s pool in Hot Sulpher Springs. It boasts a very warm waterfall that thrumbs away your stress as you soak in its pleasant mineral pools. It’s extraordinary. Then we’d head down-mountain to Red Rocks outdoor Amphitheater, considered one of the best places to listen to music in the country. It’s an iconic venue where many world-class musicians continue to have pivotal performances. Then we’d head to Denver, which has a small, vibrant art scene, and many of the most interesting artists show a mile high as well as in LA and New York. Which leads us to New York. I consider myself a New Yorker, and I’m thrilled to see and participate in shows in and around the city. My lifelong friends are here, so I’d introduce them to the creative people I know, and we’d go to Chelsea, LES, and wherever there happens to be amazing museum exhibitions whether at The Guggenheim, The Whitney, or The Museum of Modern Art.
Next, I’d go for some great breakfast food in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn at Le Petit Cafe, in which the owner has, over the decades, built a grotto into this brick establishment. It’s a real respite from the city, and right around the corner from a dear printmaker friend. There are so many wonderful surprises in and around the city for places to nosh. You just can’t beat the food in New York for its global reach and creativity, except, of course, for the fresh seafood that I hear makes waves in Miami.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I am grateful to the late painter Susan Rothenberg, who visited my studio and instilled in me a belief that I could be part of the large conversation in Painting. My partner Will, an artist, and technologist, and many artists-curators have been and are supporters. Among these are; Meg Hitchcock who is curating a solo exhibition of my work at the venerable Garrison Art Center, in the Hudson Valley this coming spring, and Monica Church, who recently curated my work into the small group show, IMPLODING MEANING at Vassar. I would also like to recognize Art historian Stephanie Grilli, as well as the many institutions that have offered me time, space, and recognition for my work, for which I am thankful.

Website: https://www.petteeolsen.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petteeolsenart/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margaret.petteeolsen

Image Credits
All images are courtesy of the artist.