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by ALLISON CASEY
Lifestyles Editor
Some people have to fight their monsters, but Michael R. Olson creates them.
During downtime at work, Olson sketches monsters on napkins, receipts and handy pieces of scrap paper.
“Sometimes when I get home late at night, I pump out three paintings,” Olson said.
Inspired heavily by cartoons and graffiti, he paints colorful creatures with their own personalities.
“There’s
a lot of my humor in, how I do things, what I see in people,” Olson
said. “When I was a kid, I used to draw people, but I’d pick out the
weirdest looking person in the room.”
His work is displayed in Black Cat Burrito and is for sale at Vandelay Studios and Lucky Penny.
“Cartoons
[inspire me], I like music a lot, a lot of artists really inspire me,”
he said. “Just different little weird things in life, things I think
are funny or silly, personal things that mean something to me.”
Although painting is Olson’s latest venture, he has been sculpting figures out of polymer clay since age 6.
“It’s
where my art really began,” he said. “Probably in the last two years
I’ve been more painting, and doing these little monsters and robots.”
He can now create about three in an hour and sells the figurines for $5 to $12.
Drawing from individual characteristics and odd features, Olson creates each of his creatures with a distinct style.
“I like to show the gums a lot,” he said.
Olson names each piece with thought to the character and its personality.
A
painting called “Roosevelt” currently hangs in Vandelay Studios. He
created the character while looking at pictures of Theodore Roosevelt.
“I wanted to do a modern, colorful take on him,” he said.
Recently, he began painting and selling shoes with his characters on them.
He sells them from $25 and up.
His paintings typically sell for about $10, and the most expensive piece he ever sold was $50.
“I’ve always believed in keeping it cheaper, because we are in a college town,” he said.
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