LittlePurpleCow Productions

Before I left for Rwanda, Ole loaned his Robert Capa book to me. "You've gotta look at this," he said. "But don't try to be Capa. This will show you what's already been done. Don't try to do what he did, go do what only you can do." He told this to me, looking me right in the eyes and meaning it, because he knows how difficult it is to find your core... to trust it and to let the art just come out.

When I visited Ole's studio the other day, he pulled this canvas down from the wall to expose this painting on the back. "See this?" he asked. "When I got back from Vietnam, this is what came out. I didn't have to think about what to paint. After all that I had seen and experienced, this is just what came out." And that, my friends, is the secret to making art. True art comes from within. It's not about what sells. It's not about doing what you think people will like. It's not about following trends or imitating what you love about someone else's work. It's about releasing what can only be found within you.

Ole's been working on the "The Wall" numbered series of paintings for many years. It was initially inspired by a Polaroid image of a canvas stretcher shot in his studio (without much thought) by a peer UGA art professor and friend Art Rosenbaum. Ole taped the image to the wall for inspiration – something to paint – and a powerful body of work began to emerge.

As I'm slowly processing all that Ole and I discussed during our time together this past week – deep and wide topics ranging from visions of Vietnam to the intensity of Cadmium Red – what I remember most is the quiet. He said nothing as he painted on the wall. And I said nothing as I moved through his studio, attempting to preserve the energy contained within the space we shared... the magic made visible on the wall.