The Scoop: Olin Johanssen, Artist

Meet Olin, he’s a San Francisco based Artist whose work is more than paint on canvas, but layers (and layers) of volume eliciting curiosity at every turn. Last spring I checked out one of his gallery shows and was blown away by how a single painting transformed, not only visually, but in how your brain digests it from each perspective. 

If I’m being honest, art is a tricky subject for me. They say lighting fixtures are the home’s jewelry, so with that logic I think art is the home’s soul. And THAT is precisely my schtick with it. For me, selecting a piece is deeply intimate and personal making it hard to pull the trigger, which is why I sat down with Olin. He opens up about his process and shares tips on how to complete your home with artwork. 

Let’s dive in… 

Q: How did you get into painting?
A: Desperation. I found myself working in retail — it was opportunistic, paid my bills, allowed me to live in San Francisco, etc. — but I was deeply dissatisfied. I was working to live and not living to work.

Rewind back, as a kid I don’t remember a time that I didn’t paint. At 16 I started a house painting company which, after dropping out of Kent University, became my career. Things were going pretty well, but when 2008 hit business went south. I took the opportunity to go back to school at Ohio State and burned through an economics degree in just two years. The whole time I told myself, do this for X number of years and then you can be an artist, which landed me in a job I shouldn’t have been doing. Finally my wife, Mo, said ‘All you ever do is talk about doing art, so be an artist’. That was the day I declared myself an artist (different from being an artist), quit my job and pivoted. That was a powerful moment. 

Q: Do you have advice for others who are stuck on a path they aren’t passionate about?
A: Do it. Go for it. It will work itself out. I still have doubts, but at the end of the day once you align with your Ego and your Soul there is a pathway forward. Let’s say in my life as an artist I never make any money selling paintings, I still get to be involved in the arts, help art play a larger role in society, and I’m ok with this. I sell paintings so I can keep painting. I’m not a big icing guy — I’m ok with just the cake. I’m doing what I love and I have freedom and flexibility in my schedule which you can’t assign a dollar amount to. 

Q: Can you explain your method? What goes on behind the scenes when you’re creating a piece?
It’s interesting because I love sculpture, it’s something I was introduced to in elementary school, but never had space to explore. If you use paint a certain way you get surface build up, which to me is like building something, and is why my work tends to be really thick. When I translate anything from a 3D observation to a 2D representation, I look at it sculpturally. I’m not drawing a nose, for example, I’m drawing a volume. I’m thinking about muscularity, essence, and physicality —  not the actual lines of the nose. So ya, my shit is thick. 

Frank Stella, did cool collage pieces and ‘built paintings’ that are completely sculptural. These are profound pieces because he pushed the boundary of the objectivity of a painting. His work informed me on what I was drawn to doing naturally. 

Q: Can you explain the meaning behind your work, the Yearning Series for example?
A: I tend to avoid discussing the meaning behind my work, but generally it’s the concept of time and the human condition. As humans we are pulled by the past and future, but tend to lose touch of the present. I don’t think this is a coincidence. The Yearning Series is my most personal series — what does it mean to yearn? Have you loved and lost? Is there a mistake you wish you could take back? The series can create uneasiness and cause you to think ‘why am I feeling out of balance’? Your relationship to the series changes depending on the angle, the time of day, or season of your life. Through your own observations of the piece you are understanding the concept of time.

Q: Why do you think art is important for humanity? 
A: Love. Art connects us to love and love connects us to art. Love here is not to be confused with pleasure. 

Humanity would not exist as we know it without art. Everything matters because of art and our ability to evolve as humans. Art is what has made everything possible because true art is the ability to observe. It is the ability to create something out of nothing in order to tell a story, that story can be used to solve a problem that can then inform a better basis for the continued practice of problem solving. The righteous triad of humanity has three points, Math, science, philosophy, are all a product of art, which sits in the center of the triangle…

Q: How do you know if a room needs art? 
A: Personally, a space isn’t complete without artwork. Art is a great embellishment of the spaces we live and dwell in, but art isn’t just what’s framed on a wall. Interior designers’ ideas and aesthetic matter because the work they create is art in and of itself. For example, think of the plaster work on Victorians in San Francisco, that’s art. Not every wall needs a painting, what is important is the story you are telling. 

Q: How do people get into finding and buying a piece of art that suits them?
A: Where I grew up there was a home that had a personal collection of artwork from all over the world; it was a mix of everything from abstract and hyper-realism to sculpture. It wasn’t curated as a financial endeavor, but for the pure enjoyment of the owners. This informed my belief that you shouldn’t buy art for the purpose of simply investing in art. Art should give you joy and pleasure. If you are comfortable spending $500 on vacation, instead save that $500 a couple times and put it towards a piece you fall in love with. Don’t buy the first piece you’re attached to. Keep looking until you find the ‘girl’ you couldn’t take your eyes off of, but didn’t say anything to and regretted it later.  Learn that feeling, then you’ll always know if its the right piece when you walk into a gallery, store or see a street vendor. 

Q: Where should people shop artwork?
A: A lot of major cities like San Francisco do First Thursdays, which is when all the galleries are open in the evening with wine and cheese. It’s a great way to get exposure to a lot of galleries, owners and artists — and they tend to be more approachable.

Peruse Olin’s work below…

Want to hear more from Olin? Check out this video