handmade book with printed illustrations and handwritten text
handmade book with printed illustrations and handwritten text

Brett Olson
Everything Else, 2023
bound-book, print and handwritten text

closed portfolio box with a ribbon labeled babble-on
open portfolio box with printed pages inside

Brett Olson
Babble-On, 2024
portfolio, acrylic and print

Portfolio box reading reasonably rural
series of monotype prints by Brett Olson
series of monotype prints by Brett Olson

Brett Olson
Reasonably Rural, 2023
portfolio, stitched and waxed monotype prints

Charcoal drawings by Brett Olson
Brett Olson
Missed Call, 2023
charcoal on paper
Three intaglio prints by Brett Olson
Brett Olson
Virgin’s Hare, 2023
intaglio prints

Brett Olson (she/her)
Art History & Studio Art major

The works I have created, while deeply tied to memory, fail to tell a history, despite using the very forms history so often employs. The works lack reason, clear narratives, preciousness, or permanency. I believe these are gifts the viewer can bring to the work in their interaction with it.

The process of creating these works is a time-consuming task for what is ultimately a rather banal result. This love of labor (or labor of love) manifests as obsessively layered handwritten words transformed into elaborate scribbles or black painted bars of self-censorship. Some words peek through but many lose all meaning. This process of detachment to the quality of meaning is developed through an accumulation of quantity and form.

Brett Olson: Artist’s website