Glenna Olson is a relief printmaker from Cohasset, MN, who was born and raised in rural Hutchinson. After graduating from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, Glenna enjoyed a career as a high school art educator for over 30 years. While teaching, she pursued several advanced study opportunities to enhance her curriculum. She studied drawing, watercolor, graphic design and book arts processes at the Grand Marais Art Colony, University of Minnesota, Bemidji State University, Hamline University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Perpich Center for Arts Education, and Minnesota Center for Book Arts. These courses not only benefitted her students but also activated the artist within the art teacher.
In 1996, inspired by a week-long printmaking workshop taught by artists Betsy Bowen and Becky Nosbisch, Glenna became a printmaker herself. Now retired from teaching, Glenna enjoys more time to create. Glenna’s body of work includes both woodcuts and linocuts and employs one of three methods to incorporate color into her prints: hand water coloring, multi-block printing, and reduction block. Over the years, she has participated in numerous juried shows and other group exhibitions in the Grand Rapids and Duluth area.
“Whatever the subject, my relief prints begin in my sketchbook or on my camera, where I try to capture the essence of what my eyes and memory first recorded. One thing I love about being a relief printmaker is that multiple prints can be made from the same block, yet each one is an original!”
