Johnathan Olson Email & Phone Number

From my earliest memories, I have had a connection to art making. I used to fiddle with cheap air-dry Crayola Clay-- I sculpted miniature food and characters, and told stories with with my new clay friends-- as my grandmother got her hair done in the Salon. I have always been a maker. Now, after studying at The High School of Art and Design, and later graduating with a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, I am a maker with skills. I have also always been performative. From my earliest days of dressing as a vampire, to playing leads in High School and College alike, and even by extension, to my fabrication of costumes at events such as New York Comic Con. "What Killed the Dinosaurs? The ICE AGE!," I echo the infamous words of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze from the cult classic Batman and Robin, as I stomp around The Jacob Javits Center in a cosplay suit it took over 280 hours to build. Ever torn between art and theatre, between making stories visually and telling them physically, I finally realized: I don't have to choose. For as long as I am capable, I have done both, and I do not see why that should change as I pursue a career. My passionate goal in life is to provide my voice to the world in any and every way that I can. My voice is ephemeral, as is my art and as are my performances. That said, while I am here, and hopefully for a short while after I am gone, the world is going to know it.

Listed skills include Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Excel, Watercolor Illustration, Sculpture, and 12 others.

• Props Master, General Advisor, Actor

  Risd Exhibitionists

  Mar 2012 - Present

  I have worked on many of the shows put on by the RISD Exhibitionists, a student-run theatre group at RISD, During my time here, I have been master of props, a set builder, an actor, and a director. I have been in charge of running several school-wide improvisational theatre events. I simultaneously sit on the board and assist in decision making, budget, promotion, and event organization.

• 

  Rhode Island School Of Design

  Senior