Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Olson.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I graduated from Valley Center High School in 2013 with a Varsity Letter in Track and Field for Pole Vaulting. I had a passion for the outdoors, dirt-biking and the arts. I loved both music and drawing, played the guitar and won local art awards at the Del Mar Fair. My love of motorcycles led me to attend MMI after high school. MMI is a Technical School for Motorcycle Mechanics in Phoenix, AZ. Six days after my 19th birthday, I was visiting my father in Las Vegas, NV and was involved in a near-fatal Motorcycle accident. My good friend, a passenger on my motorcycle, was killed, and I was not expected to live. In critical condition with extreme injuries, I would spend the following month in a coma.
After being diagnosed with a Diffuse Axonal Traumatic Brain Injury, I had suffered extreme sheering of the brain, at least 11 strokes and my brain was completely separated from top to bottom, not to mention collapsed lungs and many broken bones. My friend and I were both wearing helmets, sheering is rattling from the impact of the helmet connecting with the real axle of the vehicle. Doctors told my parents to “unplug” me, that I would never have any “quality of life” , and that IF I survived at all, I would be a “vegetable”. My family fought the textbook scenarios and put their faith in God and in me and my will to survive. Thirty Seven Days later I woke up from my coma, confused, not breathing on my own, not knowing how to make my body talk, walk, comprehend, eat or anything else. But I recognized the people that loved me, day in and day out, they showed up and pushed me to try. I would spend the next three months in a Rehabilitation facility in Las Vegas with Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists. My family cheering me on, staying with me from morning to night. Every day just pushing myself to not only do what they asked but to attempt to comprehend my progress as that. There was this darkness looming over me, I felt like a lost child and could not figure out why like a faint knowledge of my original self was out there but no map on how to find him. In that facility I learned to breathe again and was taken off a ventilator, I eventually learned how to feed myself, and the feeding tube was removed.
My left side didn’t work at all, so I counted on the right side of my body for movement and with assisted devices, eventually learned to walk. It was my goal to walk out of that facility and on January 9, 2014, I did just that. Somewhere along the way, about a year and a half after my accident, I remembered that I used to be an artist. My mom dragged out an old canvas that I has started in high school, and I painted for hours. I felt my grandma, my guardian angel as if she was painting through me. I called it “Kuka” a representation of my grandmother as I pictured her and her vibrant wings that carried me through all of the darkness. That painting saved me, knowing that I could paint, gave me a purpose, and I painted as often as I could physically handle it. My parents were introduced to the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation, and there I met other artists with similar stories. There I found the desire and will to be a part of something bigger, to help these people get recognized for who they are. I am days away from my 23rd birthday and the four year anniversary of that horrific night. Now I help others merchandise their art, with my mom’s help, we provide as much advocacy and support as we can to parents caregivers and traumatic Brain Injury Survivors. In between all the surgeries, doctors and physical therapy, I paint three days a week at The Green Art house, an amazing non-profit and help manager Revive Studios, LLC to provide small business scholarships to TBI Survivor Artist.
Please tell us about your art.
My art is so inconsistent. With brain injury comes extreme emotional fluctuation, I mostly paint in oils but love the acrylic-pour style painting as well. I am still learning and growing as an artist, but every piece has a story, and I name them accordingly. Starting with “Kuka”, some of my key pieces are “No Words” from when I was completely nonverbal and represents the visual of what it’s like to not be able to form words, “Deeply” represents the hope that I will someday find the woman of my dreams and she will love me for me, “Basking” represents how important color and sunshine is in our lives. There are so many, but each came from a place inside me of working through darkness to find the light and color in what I perceive as a very confusing world.
What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
Lack of recognition. With us (TBI Community), it’s very physically demanding to drag all my canvases to a show or set up a display. I cannot drive and have both physical and mental challenges. There are different challenges for a TBI artist than an artist without a disability. Before my accident, I did tattoo drawings but never pursued art as a career. Now it’s my only viable option for income. Knowing where what and how to market myself and the artists that Revive supports on Social Media is difficult. Art is subjective; there is no target audience.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can view my work and my story at ReviveStudioArt.com. There they can view and purchase original artwork or merchandise of my art, they can also support other scholarship recipient artists. We accept donations and corporate sponsorships to fund future TBI Survivor Artists on the website as well. Everything we do at Revive Studios helps someone with a Traumatic Brain Injury. I also have a couple of pieces hanging at Liberty Public Market.
Contact Info:
- Website: ReviveStudioArt.com
- Phone: 858-707-5733
- Email: info@revivestudioart.com
- Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/revivestudios95/
- Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/revivestudios95/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/revivestudio95/
Image Credit:
Photographs of Art by Shane Dieter Designs
Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
