Human imagination and intelligence has approached the cosmos with both childlike wonder and exacting science resulting in an inexhaustible resource of cultural myth, mystery and fact. No culture remains untouched by this and its study reveals how mankind sees itself and its role on earth. The sky is multifaceted; a relationship of disorder and order to which we respond by creating legends, myths, scientific instruments, symbols maps, charts and calendars.
Charles Olson is influenced within this dynamic of mystery and fact, finding a source of form, color contrast, spirituality and history. His paintings incorporate floating objects, celestial maps, ex votos and mythical figures capturing the essence of the human experience - knowledge, curiosity and mystery. Olson does not attempt to document the sky as would a traditional landscape artist. Perhaps they are to be seen as “monuments” to that contrast of reason and wonder built through the slow, deliberate process of painting.
