Patrick Olson is an artist and businessman. He founded

Hayden-McNeil Hayden-McNeil Publishing is a privately held company and subsidiary of Macmillan Learning headquartered in Plymouth, MI, and a publisher of college and university level custom educational materials in the United States. History Founded by Pat ...

, now a subsidiary of

Macmillan Publishers Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...

. In 2022, he wrote and starred in the performance art piece, ''Emergence''.

Career

Olson founded

, based in Plymouth, Michigan in 1992. It published custom-made materials for schools and student bodies including "textbooks, lab manuals, and curriculum supplements across a range of subject areas and for colleges and universities." Macmillan Publishers acquired Hayden-McNeil in 2008. In 2004 he opened the Patrick Olson Gallery. Olson co-produced the 2013 film ''Love and Honor'', originally titled ''AWOL''. In 2021, Olson released his first album ''Music For Scientists''. Olson lists Arctic Monkeys and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

as well as the New Wave movement and performance artists of the 1980s as influences.

''Emergence: Things Are Not As They Seem''

In 2022, Olson performed ''Emergence: Things Are Not As They Seem'' at the El Portal Theatre in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. The show transferred to Pershing Square Signature Center in October 2023 for a three-month

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

run. ''Emergence'' was a collection of spoken-word monologues about the human experience featuring art, science and music. During an interview with New York Live, Olson described the show as "

ringing Ringing may mean: Vibrations * Ringing (signal), unwanted oscillation of a signal, leading to ringing artifacts * Vibration of a harmonic oscillator ** Bell ringing * Ringing (telephony), the sound of a telephone bell * Ringing (medicine), a ri ...

art and science together into some kind of intersection." Doctor Gary Small reported in ''

Psychology Today ''Psychology Today'' is an American media organization with a focus on psychology and human behavior. It began as a bimonthly magazine, which first appeared in 1967. The ''Psychology Today'' website features therapy and health professionals direct ...

'' that Patrick Olsen's work "reminded imthat although emight not ever be able to answer those big questions, ethoroughly enjoyed pondering them." Heavily influenced by

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991.Talkin ...

, Emergence has been likened to

American Utopia ''American Utopia'' is the tenth studio album by Scottish-American rock musician David Byrne, released on March 9, 2018 through Todo Mundo and Nonesuch Records. The release is his first true solo studio album since 2004's ''Grown Backwards'', a ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

due to "the jerky staccato moves and probing questions that evoke the lyrics of Talking Heads’ 1980 hit “ Once in a Lifetime”."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Patrick American artists American writers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people