Purple Pathways

Olmstead’s creative process begins with spontaneity and intuition, allowing color, shape, and movement to guide each painting. Without a fixed plan, he builds work that explores balance, tension, and harmony within abstraction. Working with his right hand due to his disability, has shaped his process through new forms of experimentation. It changes how the layers, blends, and constructs each piece, turning limitations into a source of discovery and allowing the work to evolve through both control and chance. Olmstead uses hard-edge tape with both hands, but the limited movement in his right arm influences how he places each line. Because he cannot extend or lift it very far, the tape creates organic geometric shapes that become the structure for the freer painting that follows. He says, “My work comes from anxiety, depression, disability, and love. Those emotions give the paintings their energy, while the meaning remains open for each viewer to discover.”