Marcie Soderman Olson

Artist Statement

The creation of peace and healing on both global and personal dimensions have been central concerns in my work for the last five years. I also work in two ways: one approach involves installations of my own art work, creating a dialogue between the opposites of large and small work, and symbolically "dark" versus "light" work. My second approach is to work collaboratively in installations with other artists, as well as with students, as I did in the 36,000 Children Project, in association with the Nobel Peace Prize Forum with students from the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College in February 2005.

My work consists of abstract painting, in water-based media (acrylic, watercolor, tempera) as well as some oil painting and mixed media drawings. I work in both a small, handheld format as well as on a large scale. While my works are primarily abstract, they have associations with light, air, water, space as metaphors for mind and spirit. I often work on small-scale landscapes, in a series of increasingly abstract studies in preparation for large paintings. Born in Miami Beach, Florida, and raised on Long Island, New York, my fondest memories are of being at the beach, looking out at the infinite boundary-lessness of the sky and water, a sensation of unfettered freedom, which I am trying to evoke in my work. On the other hand, the dark series of paintings in my work evoke a sense of night or the depths of deep water which form a counterpoint to the light and air of the lighter paintings. The resulting on-going Dialogue between the paintings is an important aspect of my work, and I prefer to see several paintings exhibited together. My work also has associations with experiences of non-traditional healing, such as acupuncture, as I find the water, air and light of Lake Superior or the ocean very healing in and of themselves. Additionally, my "Solar Series" paintings relate to the August 2003 solar flares as visual analogs for emotional energy. My work reflects the idea of continual interaction between external reality and interior experience.

Although some of my paintings are large in scale (42" x 96"), since October 2003 I have been working on a series of tiny "Meditations", abstractions which reflect my state of mind at the moment I am painting them, of which Burst! is an example. Some might reflect associations with landscape, some might be tiny memorials to people I have known. Increasingly, I am reproducing them digitally in multiples, and use them in collaborative projects with students, such as the "36,000 Children Project," an on-going fundraiser for world-relief first installed for the Twin Cities Nobel Peace Prize Forum, Minneapolis, in February 2005.