Olivia attended Columbus College of Art and Design’s five-year BFA program where she majored in Illustration but took every Fine Art course that could be squeezed into her semester’s tuition. After working for five years in the LA film industry as a conceptual designer, the pull to create her own work through the means of painting was too much to resist. She cut up her credit cards and moved to a cabin in the mountains of Utah to paint, full-time.
In 2007, Olivia, formally known as “Holly Mae”, moved to Seattle to pursue her creative endeavors in the Pacific Northwest. In 2008 she travelled for her first time to Africa and lived in Malawi while painting the amazing people. She also travelled to Haiti and Bangladesh before leaving the States to live full-time in Kenya in 2016. She currently resides internationally with her daughter and is she is a full-time artist/Mother.
The paintings that I create are a direct reflection of the experience I am having. I simply see something that creates movement, stirs something that feels like California Poppy orange or a particular note in a song that brings forth tears of recognition. A giddiness rises in the chest and a “yes” that is curious about a mother holding her child to her chest, or the way light comes through a blackberry bramble.
Olivia Mae Pendergast
