Born in La Grande, Oregon in 1950, John W. Olsen grew up in Portland and Florence until his family moved to Eugene in 1961. “I went to Woodrow Wilson Junior High,” he notes, “where coach Roy Bradetich got me started on running. I now run the annual Butte to Butte race with Roy’s son Terry Bradetich on a team called ‘Kiss My Butte.’ I run 25 to 30 miles a week.” At age 13, Olsen left home. He moved in with an aunt and uncle in Mapleton, then with grandparents in Florence to finish ninth grade. He moved with his dad to Portland, attended three different high schools, then to Sweet Home for junior year and Churchill High in Eugene for graduation. “I got into art in Sweet Home,” he recounts. “My teacher encouraged me to paint, and I’ve painted ever since.” Olsen has paintings on view at the Jazzy Ladies Cafe and Club in Eugene. Also a poet, his first book of poetry, Idlemore, was published in 1973, his second, Swirls and Whirlpools, in 1996, and a third is in progress.
After high school, Olsen lived in Portland for 10 years. He tried to live off his art, but also worked summers in Portland parks and Christmas season in retail stores, until 1977, when his house burned down and his paintings were destroyed. “Curtain, drum,” he sighs. “I moved to Imnaha, Oregon, population 26, with a friend, his wife, four kids, two dogs and four cats. He had purchased the Imnaha Store and Tavern. I helped him get started, then worked on a cattle ranch, but mostly worked on my art.” On his return to Portland, Olsen got into bartending. “I worked with old-timers and learned a lot,” he explains. “I bartended in Joseph, in Portland, and all over the coast.” He also got into construction and live theater in Newport and Lincoln City. He worked in his brother’s running shoe store in Portland, Pacesetter Athletics, in the 1990s, then returned to Eugene in 2000 to open his own Pacesetter store. He closed the store in 2007, got a contractor’s license and continued to work in construction. Olsen has been a member of the Central Lutheran Church choir since 2007. He and his partner Kit Sundling will sing in the choir’s performance of Joseph Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass on May 4 at 8:30 am.