Bridgeport, NE

[Coyote]

Mural artist brings color and beauty to Nebraska communities



BRIDGEPORT, Neb. (KOLN) - During a visit to Bridgeport, we discovered a beautiful mural that tells the story of the town. It turns out, Lauren Olson is the artist behind the project. We caught up with Olson to learn more about her work. “I’m a K through 12 art teacher at Garden County Public Schools,” Olson said. “I went to school at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and I had planned to move to Colorado, but I’m super thankful that I ended up in my hometown of Oshkosh.” Olson says she always loved art. “I had a great art teacher growing up,” Olson said. “In high school, I was in sports and so we would do a lot of traveling to different schools, and I noticed that some of these schools had murals. I asked him if I could paint a mural. He said yes, and I went on my own and started painting murals in our school. That gave me a jumpstart on where I am today.” There are challenges to putting murals up on the sides of buildings. “A lot of it has to do with surface quality,” Olson said. “Trying to paint straight lines among the bricks and grout can be hard. Another challenge is when you are up close, everything looks abstract, and so you have to pull back, and spend a lot of time looking at the mural from a distance. I take measurements of the building and take photos. I then make a digital collage of where things should go, and I am able to tweak that as I go, to make sure everything is done right for the town.”

Olson has murals in Bridgeport, Lewellen, Lisco, Oshkosh, Big Springs, Lodgepole and Chappell. She is going to work on a sign in Kansas City this summer. “I’m interested in history,” Olson said. “That’s probably one of the best parts about doing this. For this Bridgeport mural, I went to the local museum, looked at some history books, and talked to locals. This mural features the Big Boy Train, the train depot, Courthouse and Jail rocks, Henry Clarke who is known for creating a toll bridge here, and that bridge was used for people heading up to Deadwood when gold was found there. When you do the research in advance, you can pick out some of the major characteristics and historical events you’ll want to show in the mural.” The Bridgeport mural took Olson more than 100 hours to complete. She says her students have helped her with some of the murals in Oshkosh. If you’d like to contact Olson for a mural in your town, you can find her on Facebook at Lauren Olson Art, or you can go to Lauren Olson Art