Surrealist Comics

The Art of Gina Morrill-Olson

I first met Gina Morrill-Olson at the One Moto Show in 2018. She was with her husband Morto Olson and I mistook them for a couple that I had met earlier and just started talking to them like I knew them. They are the kind of people that went along with it and we had a conversation before I realized that these were new people. I ended up writing a story about Morto and the Excelsior Super X motorcycle he had entered in the show. Over the last couple years I started following Gina on Instagram, @missspryt, and fell in love with her pen and ink drawings.

Gina and Morto are adventurers and creative people of the first water. They are deeply imbedded in the world of motorcycling. They race motorcycles at Bonneville and have been involved in movies. Morto is co-producing The Last Motorcycle On Earth, currently in production.

Gina spent her youth between her father’s house in Missouri and her mothers house in Eastern Washington. For the last 24 years she has lived in Missoula Montana.

Her pen and ink work has a cinematic and slightly surreal quality that compliments her subject matter. It is a throwback to 19th and early 20th century graphic illustration. You could see Gina’s work as engravings in a popular illustrated magazine. The drawings have a wry humor that is very enchanting. It is like she is giving us a bit of wisdom and a look back at a past just out of reach and yet deeply embedded in our cultural psyche. 


Rust. How did you get interested in doing art? What is your background in art? 


I have always drawn, always wanted to be creative. I have no memory of this ever being any other way. There was no eureka moment that I can remember. The family story is that I was sitting on my Grandfather's lap as a baby and he gave me a pen. I grabbed it and scribbled and wouldn't let go. He proclaimed I was going to be an artist. After that there were always art supplies and craft projects put in my direction. If there is such a thing as having a vocation, I think that is it. 


Rust. You have a style that is reminiscent of 19th century graphic art mixed with surrealism and a dash of tattoo style. How did you develop that?


My style of work kind of came together on it's own, a merging of interests in my life. To start with I worked in a tattoo parlor for 20 years. When I first started in the tattoo industry one had to be versatile. You couldn't afford to specialize, there just wasn't enough work. As a result you become comfortable drawing in a number of different styles. You learn to blend everything because that's what your clients want. The typical American tattoo style is several small to medium sized tattoos with some element to tie them all together in a larger piece. An example is stars, dots, flowers. That is how most people build tattoo sleeves.   

I have been drawing people from antique photos that I bought mostly on Ebay. Some of the photos are old family ones or photos that friends give me. I seem to be a collector of old photos now because of that. Mostly I pick images that I think would be fun to draw. Along the way I started having the people say things. Like comics, but I never thought of doing comics. It was a surprise to me when my son told me I was making Surrealist comics. I was just telling stories.    Mostly of the people I draw are venting my thoughts and observations, then the birds answer the people. The birds tell the truth Perhaps that's were the drawings seem Surrealist. Antique people and birds having conversations or telling stories. 
 


Rust. What a great device; the birds as truth tellers. How did you come up with that as a element of your art?

I have lots of little sayings in my head that show up in my work. One of them is “a little bird told me.” And also the canary in the well. What else would they tell you but the truth? 

Rust. There is a strong sense of nostalgia and a romance for the past in your art. What does that come from?


I am a sentimental person. Again that is probably something I learned from my childhood. What I saw and just absorbed as normal.  When I was a child, my brother and I would spend the summers with my Dad. He lived in southwest Missouri. In the Missouri Ozarks. It's a heavy tourist area. Country music shows, a theme park, places with traditional crafts. When we were children most of those places had the employees dress in costumes like out of the 1800's or a stereotype of hillbillies. We were completely immersed in old time music, horses, blacksmiths, glassblowers, quilters, basket weavers of just a few I can think of at the moment. It was living in two worlds at the same time all summer long. 


Rust. Can you talk about the role humor plays in your work?


I'm glad you think there is humor in my work. I'm not sure I think of myself as a funny person. I don't know that I can talk about that part so well. I draw to amuse myself and most of the time I think I'm the only one who thinks something is funny. 


Rust. I have only seen your pen and ink drawings. Is there something about limiting yourself to the discipline of black and white pen and ink that is freeing for you or speaks to what you are trying to say?


My need to be creative is bigger than one discipline. I do a lot of different things. I spent about 5 years in either Craft or Graduate School doing metalsmithing and sculpture. I love working dimensionally. I always seem to return to drawing though. It's the primordial skill I suppose. Right now I am working mostly in pen and ink because it's so convenient. It takes the least amount of space, I can do it anywhere. Maybe that's what's so freeing. I can spend just a few minutes drawing in between tasks. My life feels really busy right now. 


Rust. Artists tend to collect images and background material to draw on as inspiration or for research. Your work leads me to think you maintain a collection of graphic art. 


Yes! I have bits of paper everywhere with images, ideas, poems, quotes. I try to kind of keep all of the ephemera filed, but it spills out. Thankfully my husband, Morto, has his own archive of ephemera so he doesn't get too crabby about it. 


Rust. What is your working method? 


My working method. Chaos mostly. As I said I have been using antique photos as a base. I mostly have no plan ahead of time of what the drawing is going to be about. Occasionally I do have a plan, but mostly not.  I pick a photo that speaks to me in a sense. I'm drawn to it by how the photo looks. The people, their dress, their pose or action. The rest usually falls in place as I draw. 


Rust. Living with Morto you are surrounded by vintage motorcycles and of course you are a rider yourself. How has that informed your art?


My work is basically stories and motorcycles are an everyday part of my world. There is not a day where Morto and I have at least one conversation involving motorcycles or motorcycle culture. I think the only rooms in the house where there isn't something about motorcycles is maybe in the bathrooms. After 20 years together there are a lot of stories. I did an assemblage box about our first road trip date. We drove to Portland to buy an Excelsior Super X. It was built by an old hill climbing racer named Al Skrelunas. It was his last bike and he was selling everything to move into an assisted living residence. It was the end of the line and Al knew it. Watching Morto load up that bike with Al standing at his garage door was one of the most heartbreaking things I've ever seen. I did a drawing of Marty Dickerson after he stayed at our house. I did a drawing about gear after I crashed a motorcycle. 


Rust. Whose art inspires you and why? 


Hard question. There are so many artists who inspire me. Many of them wouldn't make sense with how I am working right now. Turner for his use of color. Frida Kahlo for story telling and painting her reality. Joseph Cornell and Bette Saar for their assemblages and stories. Joseph Cornell again for nostalgia and romance.  Two print makers, Carlos Cortez and a local Jay Rummel. Those two are the most inspiring for how I'm working now. Both of their work is narrative. Cortez's is political and Rummel's is his own observations and stories related to living in Missoula MT. Of course as print makers, their work is all black ink. There is a tattoo artist and painter in Portland named Darren McKeag, following him online is kind of prepping me for when I'm ready to go bigger with my work. 


Rust. Whose work would you travel to see?


I don't like big cities that much, they make me feel claustrophobic. But I wouldn't mind going to Chicago and seeing Carlos Cortez's work at the Mexican Cultural Center. I think they have some prints of Posada's also there. Jose' Guadalupe Posada is another master of block printing. He's probably on my list of inspiring artists too. 


Rust. Where in the world would you like to go that you have never been?


Difficult question. There are so many places that would be lovely to see. But I just can't think of any place I'd like to see that I'd have to get in an airplane to get to. Maybe England. Maybe. More practical is some place in the US where we can ride or drive to. Really the place that calls me the most I've been to many times. Bonneville obsesses both Morto and me. It has so many more stories to tell me. It is the siren's call.