I’m not just writing about Ron Olson’s art show because he did a portrait of me. But I am very proud of that painting.
Olson, a deejay on “The Ron and Karen Show” with Karen Perrin on WRVR 104.5 The River, is currently exhibiting about 20 works, including original paintings and print reproductions, in “The Art of Radio,” through October 31st at Memphis Botanic Garden. The show opened with a reception on October 3rd.
Recently voted “Best Local Radio Show” in Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis, Olson didn’t get into art until he was 50. “I didn’t have any kind of art thing in me when I was a kid,” he says. “I think for me, I mainly loved music.”
Born in Philadelphia, Olson’s family moved to Memphis in 1960. “I was a Navy brat,” he says.
He was captivated by Memphis music. “I used to try to imitate all the people that worked at WDIA or WLOK. I used to listen to that a whole lot,” he says. “I can remember being in my room listening to ‘Pretty Woman’ by Roy Orbison about 100 times in a row. I’m sure my parents were questioning, ‘What’s up with this?’”
He never dreamed he’d one day become a deejay. He didn’t even know how radio worked. “I can remember being in the car going somewhere and my mom was listening to the radio. I remember George Klein working at this little station in Millington. I didn’t understand. I thought he had a band down there that played every song.’”
Olson was a deejay doing college radio at University of Tennessee at Martin, University of Memphis, and Rhodes College before he got his first paid radio job at the old WMSO AM in Collierville, Tennessee when he was about 19. “’Red Necks, White Socks, Blue Ribbon Beer'” was the first big power song when I was there,” he says. “I got paid $1.25 an hour. And that meant I did a four-hour show I got five bucks. My take-home was $17.”
He went on to work at other radio stations, including WHRK K-97 FM and WMC FM-100, where he worked for more than 35 years. In 2021, Olson was inducted into the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame.
“The radio thing was how I got inspired to do that art stuff. Just being around it. I wonder how many songs I’ve played in my career. It’s got to be in the millions. Art was just something in the back of my mind I always wanted to do.”
He enjoyed visiting David’s Frames, which is owned by his buddy David Stough. “I went by thousands of times looking at all the art work,” he says. “I’d go in back in the shop and look at stuff and see things and say, ‘Golly. This is great. This is cool. How did they do this? How did they do that?’”
Finally, one day Stough told him, “You got this bug. Why don’t you do something about it?’” He gave Olson a list of art supplies to buy and said, “Go to The Art Center and give it a shot.”
Olson bought an easel and paints and went to work. “The very first thing I ever did was a Japanese sunrise,” he says. “Nobody saw that but me. When you’re a beginner, you can do a sunrise. There’s always a church with a red roof and valleys.”
He put the paints away for a year before trying again. “I just started doing the guitar thing. It’s representative of Memphis. With all my music background I can’t play a guitar. But I’ve listened to so many songs. The word ‘Memphis’ is so magical. It’s about Sun Records, Elvis Presley, Stax Records. It’s just part of our history and it always will be.”
Olson began incorporating lines from songs into his guitar paintings. “Everybody has a story about a song they love,” he says. “I’ve done close to 300 types of guitars and pieces. And that’s kind of my bread and butter. I do other things, too. I’ve done paintings on wood. I paint on just regular canvases.”
“Riverside Drive,” one of the pieces in the show, is painted on a 7′ by 8′ drop cloth. “It’s an artsy bicycle. As if you were driving your bike down Riverside Drive when it used to be open.”
He remembers early in his painting career, when he joined an art group composed of women. Olson put some of his work in one of their shows, which just happened to also be at Memphis Botanic Garden. “I have no idea what I’m doing. This lady comes up up to me and introduces herself. It’s Linda Hill, the art curator for Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. She said, ‘I love your stuff. I just want you to know we bought three pieces we’re going to put up at our hospital.’”
He called his wife, Vicki, to tell her the news. “So, that was the true spark. Oh, my God. It was ironic. Here we are 10 years later, basically, and I’ve got a whole show. It truly started at the Botanic Garden with some trees on wood or something. And I know I had the Memphis-Arkansas bridge scene, which a lot of people do.”
Olson, who still has never had an art lesson, has done about 500 paintings. His favorite is the one he recently finished for the “Bear Bash,” Oct. 26th, at Mont Helena in Rolling Fork, Mississippi to benefit the tornado victims.
“I got the idea to incorporate a guitar in the piece, but it’s made out of forks on the body of the guitar. Probably 35, 40 forks. It was just a challenge to figure out how to do it. I painted it a metallic blue. It really jumps out.” Writing on the work includes, “I get knocked down, but I get up again.”
“On the outside edge is a line from the Lord’s Prayer,” says Olson. “It makes it even more Southern and more like Itawamba and Robert Johnson stuff.”
Olson scans everything he paints, so he can make reproductions for prints or use it to make coasters or T-shirts. “Once you have a scan of it, you can do anything you want,” he says. “You can put it on beach towels. We ship all over the country from New York to Los Angeles to London.’
Olson says he doesn’t paint people. “I’m not good at eyes, noses, lips.” As for the painting he did of me, Olson says, “You’re the only person I’ve ever really done.
“My painting of you is one of my favorites. I thought it was perfect. I love that painting. And I know that people that know you go crazy when they see it. We’ve sold a bunch of prints of that. With the glasses and the hair. On the real piece I broke some glasses (and put) on there so they’re real glasses. Black hair going off the top of the canvas. I though it was real cool.”
Olson paints only with acrylics, and he likes a lot of texture in his paintings. “I want people to walk up and look at a painting and reach out and touch it.” And, if somebody says ‘It spoke to me,'” Olson says, “Those are magic words. I love it.”
