Artist Profile: Kristian Olson

Today I am profiling an amazing artist I found online at IllustrationMundo.com: California-based illustrator Kristian Olson. Olson's meticulous mixed media and digital artworks are intricately stylized and iconographic. One can see a variety of influences in his work (Asian art, fantasy, surrealism etc.) but his work stands on its own with its unique vision.

According to Olson's statement on his website:

Much of my work is autobiographical and deals with my own questioning of reality and religion. It is about loosening my mental grip on life that society, religion, philosophy, etc. have conditioned us all to have. That grip is on one hand useful and on the other hand detrimental. Via language, it allows us to make sense of the world and "progress" as individuals and society, but it also traps our experience inside its contrived mental boxes. I'm trying to let go of those controls and turn off my conditioned mind. By doing so I aim to capture some of the innocent fascination that most of us had as children. For myself, some of this occurs within the process of creating art. For the viewer I want my work to look alien, or foreign, or just beautiful, to remind them of a world they don't understand but are intrigued by. Many of my pieces have underlying stories that deal with god and self, but the stories are usually a sideshow. It is the mystery that is of key importance.

Some examples of his beautiful work are shown below.