About
I am Chelsea Olsen, mixed-media artist working in block print, watercolor, and marker. I love combining these techniques in unexpected ways, bring together texture and line with bright, bold color. Based in Yelm, Washington I draw inspiration from exploring the Pacific Northwest with my children- where the region’s landscapes and everyday moments often find their way into my work.
Artist Statement
Coloration Chaos is the name I chose for my business because I feel it represents my art as well as my life. I am a Homeschooling mom of two young boys and our family is neurodivergent. This means navigating most days has an element of chaos. We are a family that will drop everything to go see the sunset, drive two hours to see an aurora, or hop in the car on a random afternoon to go on a new adventure. We love to connect with nature in the Pacific Northwest.
I bet you’re wondering how this applies to my art? I love colors! I love adding them and using them in different ways. I also love making small changes to things and adding a little of my own chaos to my art! One example of this is my logo. For this piece I used markers and watercolor. I wanted it to represent my family’s favorite places to visit in the Pacific Northwest: Cape Disappointment Lighthouse and Mount Rainier. I used the sunrise and space as the back drop for this piece because I love the way the colors mix in the sunrise and I love stargazing with my kids. I also included a compass rose to represent my family’s love for adventure, but I turned it slightly sideways to represent our chaos. North is pointing to the Big Dipper, representing me and my husband. South is pointing to the Little Dipper, representing our children. I also surrounded it with the phases of the moon to represent the passing of time and phases of life.
The process for a lot of my art begins with an adventure with my kids and sometimes my husband or a friend or two. We explore a new place and I take lots of pictures of all the things I see. I use my favorite pictures as a reference for my block prints. The first and probably the most important step is to make sure you reverse your image because you’re essentially carving a giant stamp. I draw the reversed image onto artist’s linoleum then I use little curved knives to scoop out the parts I want to be white or be able to paint. Once my image is carved, I ink the linoleum, place it on a piece of paper, and run it through a press. With this medium I can make the same image multiple times. I leave some unpainted so it’s just the paper color and the ink color. Most of them I paint, so even though the images are similar they can turn out very differently and each one is an original piece of art. Most of my block prints are used to make greeting cards, but I also do bookmarks and some larger block prints as well. The reason I like greeting cards so much is because it’s a small original piece of art that most people can afford. Also, the size is fun because cards are easy to gift. When people have a connection to a place I printed on a card, I get to hear a part of their story or the story of the person the card will be going to. I have heard stories from everyone from mountain climbers to commercial fisherman and visitors from other places who had never seen tall mountains or the ocean before! I love making connections and then sending a piece of my art off on its own adventure.
One of my favorite things to include in my art is lighthouses. A goal of mine is to get a photo of every lighthouse open to the public in Washington. I’ve visited all of the lighthouses in Oregon, and am working on cards for each one! For me a lighthouse represents new adventure, but also finding your way back home. There is something comforting about them. I want to discover new landmarks in the Pacific Northwest and further that I can explore with my family and, then with my art, create connections with new people.
Coloration Chaos is a metaphor for my life in the Pacific Northwest. It’s my way of documenting and sharing my love of nature and exploration. As an artist and homeschooling mom it allows me to create meaningful connections. My adventures become my art, and my art becomes my connection to my community.