GREEN PINWHEELS
Like a tight, small calico, or a Liberty print, this smattering of green-and-yellow flowers bursting from their reddish circles is comforting and cheerful.
Decorative Throw Pillow$70 + shippingFaux Silk w/ zipper and Piping
16" X 16"STAR STRUCK When I painted this, I was thinking of how constellations connect the stars, but it could easily be a salt crystal under a microscope, or even the sky itself in all its many shades of navy.
(click for larger image)
Linen /Cotton Placemats
Linen /Cotton "Ellen Original" Fabric.
POND LIFE
This is one of my favorite paintings. I think of it as water lilies on the surface of a pool, with eucalyptus branches and weird little orange dots undulating around them in ripples.
VERDANT SYMMETRY
This is from my series inspired by 19th-century German botanical diagrams. The big green trumpet plants are so dramatic against the black.
PACIFIC
I think of these squares as water, but they can be nearly anything: falling rain getting heavier, an aerial map of a city, the side of a skyscraper. I even projected them on a wall for one of minimalist composer Julia Wolfe’s instrumental choruses at Roulette
MICROSCOPE
With a microscope attachment on my iPhone, I took pictures of branches and leaves, then made them into whatever I wanted using natural inks. Arranged in a grid, they remind me of 1950s upholstery on bamboo porch furniture.
YELLOW PEPPERMINT
Little red-and-white peppermint candies with big green leaves on a pale yellow ground—there’s something wonderfully surreal about this one.
JADE FLURRY
I painted this as a black river crowded with fallen fragments of Dr. Seuss-ian palm trees and poofs, but it could also be the view from beneath a canopy of trees on a tropical night.
STAR STRUCK
When I painted this, I was thinking of how constellations connect the stars, but it could easily be a salt crystal under a microscope, or even the sky itself in all its many shades of navy.
NATURAL WONDER
I made a series of nearly two-hundred natural-ink drawings inspired by diatoms, or one-celled animals. This pattern combines several of those images, in varying sizes, all connected with squiggles.
33" X 43" repeatALPHONSE
I made a series of drawings inspired by 19th-century German botanical diagrams of plants against a black background. This flowery specimen has a swirly quality worthy of Art Nouveau superstar Alphonse Mucha.
LEMONS
As a painting, this combination of bright lemon shapes, white petals, and celery green branches is so cheerful. I just love living with it.
VERDANT SYMMETRY
This is from my series inspired by 19th-century German botanical diagrams. The big green trumpet plants are so dramatic against the black.
LOTUS SPIN
This simple, still pool full of lotus blossoms feels almost classical in blue and ivory.
STAR STRUCK
When I painted this, I was thinking of how constellations connect the stars, but it could easily be a salt crystal under a microscope, or even the sky itself in all its many shades of navy.
GOLDEN LINKS
Turning this painting into a mirror print made it so exciting—the mirror creates shapes you’d never expect. The gold and green together feel luxurious. This would be a great wallpaper.
ATLANTIC
I’d read that if you’re feeling stuck, creatively, pare yourself down to one simple element. For me that was a blue square. These indigo brush marks entertained me for years.
VERDANT SYMMETRY This is from my series inspired by 19th-century German botanical diagrams. The big green trumpet plants are so dramatic against the black.
FLORA BAND
Pale orange and yellow stripes of varying widths give the loosely-falling dark blue flowers and leaves an almost formal quality.
SEA ANEMONE
This dark gray tidal pool full of red fronds and freaky bright-green sea creatures is from a series of 8”x8” paintings. I’d love to see it in a larger scale, too.
EDWARDIAN QUEEN
This stream-of-consciousness whirl of made-up flowers and vines has a paisley mood, like a black-and-green brocade from the Edwardian period, with just a touch of pink.
STACCATO
I was thinking of 1950s cretonne fabric when I combined these tiny flower specimens with a deconstructed flurry of squares. The green and beige against black is so chic.
INDIAN TAPESTRY
I was thinking about paisleys when I made this abstracted floral. The unusual shapes and many small dots—dots are a theme in my work—rendered in dark green and hot pink have a zingy, 1960s feel.
GOLD STAR
This barrage of black and green stripes overtaken by spiky white flowers is kinetic. The flashes of peach and orange add an extra punch.
ALEX BRAZIL
The long, green leaves zooming across a field of yellow blossoms feel more vegetative than floral, like corn before it’s husked, or breadfruit. My friend Alex in Brazil used it to upholster cushions on a midcentury chair.
IVORY MEADOW
The ivory daisies with their tall, leafy stems are like marble statues standing in a sun-kissed field of turquoise-blue cornflowers and forget-me-nots.
DOGWOOD
Soft, pale greens remind me of spring, when dogwood trees fill with blossoms. The black curlicues and tiny yellow fleur-de-lis create a sense of movement, like a breeze.
ALEX BRAZIL
The long, green leaves zooming across a field of yellow blossoms feel more vegetative than floral, like corn before it’s husked, or breadfruit. My friend Alex in Brazil used it to upholster cushions on a midcentury chair.
RIVER FLOW
Cacti, flowers, pinecones, branches—here all sorts of foliage is headed downstream, caught up in the eddies and carried along by the current.
For the past three decades, Laurie Olinder has made art on the Lower East side of Manhattan- from abstract nature-inspired watercolors and ink drawings, to colassal multi-media theater productions. She pulls from this vast archive for her debut textile collection, reimagining her original paintings into patterns printed on fabric. Rendered as repeats, Olinder's exhuberant designs become a fantastical eden of plants, tenfdrils, blossoms and seeds all of it spiraling through whirling eddies and midnight skies, and thrumming with the vitality of the city that fuels her.