Donald Olson and the Bronze Horse Foundry by Charlie Baser
There are two things that Donald Olson enjoys most in the world: bronze casting and horses, and he has made these two things central in his life because they are essential to his happiness. Born in 1930 in Helena, Mont., Don is what could be called a true Montanan. He has spent his life in the state and the majority of it in the Bitterroot Valley. He is incredibly self reliant—he grows his own produce in a garden directly outside his foundry, raises beef for himself and his children (who are spread across the west from Bozeman to California), bakes his own bread, fishes for his own seafood, and, even though he is nearly 80 years old, camps in old Forest Service huts with his wife and their two dogs. He is deeply attached to the land and history of Montana—a fact that is reflected in his love for horses and the subject matter of his bronze sculptures. Don casts wildlife and emblems of the west—cowboys, Native Americans, wagon trains, etc.
His self-reliance is also evident in his start in the bronze-casting world. Donald started casting bronze mainly as a challenge, to see if he could figure out how. Though trial and error, Donald mastered the art of bronze casting and in the process fell in love with it. Although Don only casts bronze sporadically these days, he has been casting bronze for 40 years and once owned and operated a booming bronze casting business in Missoula. He opened his Missoula foundry in 1968 and employed 18 to 20 people to work it. Even with so many employees in those days they couldn't keep up with the demand; in fact, they were always six months behind. In the early 1980's, though, the art market changed and he closed his foundry in Missoula after nearly 20 years to cast on a smaller scale from home.
Today, Don lives with his wife of 25 years, Linda, on a breathtaking spread of land in the foothills of the Bitterroot Range, five miles south of Corvallis. Together Don and Linda run the Bitterroot Therapeutic Riding Arena in their backyard and Donald casts bronze in an old barn on the property that he has converted into a full workshop and studio. Bronze casting is complex, time consuming and expensive. It takes multiple days to complete a single piece, and while Don does some casting of other artists’ work, for the most part he is the artist from start to finish. Don does not send his work out to galleries to sell, he has his own gallery attached to his foundry and it is full of sculptures he has created over the years.
In today’s world where success and happiness is often measured in dollars, it is refreshing and reaffirming to meet someone like Don who has put love of life and self-fulfillment above all. "There's no point living life if you're not doing what you love," Don says.