Homeless artist grew up in Healdsburg
The French artist, Edgar Degas, is known for saying, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” In the case of Healdsburg artist Justin Olson, others see fanciful figures, hearts, butterflies, ladybugs and a passion to connect.
Olson went to kindergarten in Healdsburg, graduated from Healdsburg High and says he moved away for a while. “I came back about a year ago,” he said Monday afternoon, next to a large mural made of colored sand and discarded or collected plant material on a corner of Healdsburg’s Downtown Plaza.
Olson says he lives near the river, “in a house I built out of bamboo.” He posts a sign near his art that states that he can’t work due to a medical condition, but declines to offer details. “I’d like to keep that private, please,” he said.
Olson has family and friends in the area. His friend, Jesse Wagy, joined him on the Plaza Monday and helped mix fabric dye into sand to create purple, teal, pink and orange colors that Olson uses to fill in drawings that he outlines in bright white salt that he buys at the dollar store.
Wagy is also a local and says he has known Olson for many years. “I ran into him and got hooked on helping him,” Wagy said.
Olson became known around town earlier this year for making life-sized figures out of wire and posing them on bicycles, kneeling or sitting. He moved on to plant material and made rustic arrangements of woven flowers, found materials and creek-polished wood. A week ago, he moved off the street corners into the Plaza.
The centerpiece of his Plaza mural is a large heart outlined in chestnuts that Olson picked up along Magnolia Drive and the center is filled with fresh flowers he scavenged from the compost bin behind Safeway. Above the heart are ladybugs pinwheeling around yin-yang symbols and the beginning outlines of the words “Welcome to Our Town.”
“I’m homeless and I don’t like to beg,” Olson said. “I like doing art and people seem to get a lot of joy out of seeing this. That’s what makes it worth it.”
Rick Cafferata, the homeless outreach coordinator for Reach for Home, said that Olson has been homeless for many years and rarely asks for help. “He likes to take care of himself, he’s very independent. He doesn’t like authority, but he’s just a good kid trying to get by.”
Olson has drawn the attention of the local police and parks department, since he’s creating art in a public park. Olson said the parks director told him he could finish this piece, but should not plan to keep using public space.
Mark Themig, the city’s Community Services Director, was unable to confirm the conversation Olson cited, but said, “Justin told me he would clean it up and leave the area as he found it.”
Themig said he asked Olson not to use candles and he agreed.
For Olson, making art is a way to connect and make an impact. “I don’t have any money and I want to do something awesome. I told the city I would sweep it up when I was done.”
Meanwhile, as he spread colored sand in his salt outlines, families and visitors stopped to admire his work and thank him for it.
