Karen Olson
Companion, Karen Olson
Consultations & Beyond - The Why, How and End Results
Concept Aware Week Long Workshop
I met Karen when she attended my week-long Concept Aware® class at Maine Media. As a multi-media and conceptual artist she was intrigued by the title and description of the workshop.
Olson says,“By the end of the first day, I realized just how much this was going to affect my work. I discovered a place for the work I had inside me. I began to develop a clear understanding of how to navigate my creative journey. I continually go back to revisit what I learned and apply it to my practice.”
Attending Paris Photo
Karen decided to join my Insider’s Guide to Paris Photo, my small group experience of the largest international art fair dedicated to photography.
“Paris Photo opened up the photography world to me tenfold. Syb brought us to the private opening and walked us through the massive Grand Palais offerings. She brought us to meet a selection of international gallery directors and artists. Sybylla’s assignment of narrowing down five favorite images to share with our group reflected the minimalistic, organic, and mysterious quality I was missing. This exercise inspired and reinvigorated new directions in my work.”
Individual Consultation Session
Karen sought an individual consultation session to edit and sequence a body of work she had been intensely working on since returning from Paris. Karen says. “I wanted help choosing images to include in the series and how to sequence them. Sybylla helped me decide which were the top twenty, top twelve, and top five, and in what order they should be sequenced. I learned the how’s and why’s of doing this. This is essential knowledge for anyone looking to submit their work anywhere. We talked about where to submit the work and who might be interested in it.”
Juried Exhibition
I recommended Karen submit her work to an upcoming exhibit, the heart goes nine, that I was jurying for The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts. My theme, taken from a line in an e.e.cummings poem, asked for a visualization of your heart song. Two of Karen’s images joined the work of 31 international photographers in this group exhibition.
Joining my free, online Photobook Book Group
When I launched my online Photobook Book Group in March 2020, Karen was one of the first people to sign-up and attend. “Photobook groups are great in that you get to meet fellow artists, hear the artists’ thought process and journey. Not only is it educational in both a general and process-oriented way, but it helps me realize we all struggle with the same issues around making work and how we might not feel very confident. The photobook groups have this interesting effect of providing me with more confidence.”
Solo Exhibition
Knowing Karen’s work, I believed it would be an excellent fit for the Sweetheaven Gallery in Newburyport, MA, and introduced her to gallerist, Greg Nikas. Karen’s first solo exhibit, Wildheart, opened on August 7, 2021.
Karen explains; “Preparing for the show was stressful at first but I put together the knowledge I had gained about sequencing to create a mockup of the space and how they would hang. Sybylla assisted in the gallery set-up to create the best viewing experience.”
