The Rural We: Mark Olshansky
“I can’t draw and I can’t paint,” says Mark Olshansky. But boy, can the nonagenarian from Great Barrington create extemporaneous needlepoint tapestries. In between his two careers as a public adjuster (negotiating on property owners’ behalf against insurance companies) and wine importer, he was handed a scrim at a cocktail party from there grew a passion for stitching. The passion lay dormant for 20 years while he and his wife ran the importing business. Since he’s been back to needlepoint, he has raised needlepoint to a new level in the fine arts. His work is currently being shown in an exhibit, “Mark Olshansky: Tapestries” at the 510 Warren Street Gallery in Hudson through Aug. 28.
My wife and I were at a cocktail party for a client who had a big home in Irvington on the Hudson (the house had been struck by lightning —twice —and I got the job to repair it). When we got there, everybody was given a little scrim with a needle, and one string of wool. I started fooling around with it when we were drinking. Ten years later I was still doing it, then quit for 20 years.
When I begin a piece, the first thing I do is sign my initials in the right-hand corner. Then I just go. I design as I go along. Each time I go in a direction it opens up other avenues. I like mixing up the stitches. There’s not a line drawn on anything I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t be doing it if I just had to fill in colors. The interesting part is, how do you construct it? I use colors, shading, dimensional stitches. I like to create pieces in series, such as my Art and the Fugure, Mahler, and Infant series.
The biggest piece I’ve done, back in 1980, was 4 feet by 9 feet. A piece that’s 20 by 16 inches takes me about three to four weeks to do. If I get a big scrim and work on it for any length of time, it begins to become very pliable, and more difficult to work on. I’m quite old and still able to do this. I’ve increased the size of the stitches.
I listen to music endlessly when I stitch. I’ve bought all the Verdi operas, and all the music that Bach ever wrote.
I’ve exhibited in over 100 shows, but I had my first one-man show last November at the Knox Gallery in Monterey. It was very successful from an artistic point and a financial one. I never expected it. I’ve got 17 pieces in the exhibit at the 510 Warren Street Gallery. They’re not all framed, but they’ve all been stretched. I don’t do commissions but I’ve sold quite a lot of my pieces.
Mark Olshansky, "Lost Kite"
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