Between Sittings

An art exhibition by local artist Jen Olson in the Heafey Gallery.

Jen Olson is a figurative painter who likes to capture the awkward exchanges, sublime moments, uncomfortable feelings, and fragile connections that make us gloriously human.

In “Between Sittings” she examines our rituals of rest and movement from the silent, steady perspective of the chair.

Chairs map the rhythms of our lives. They witness our comings and goings, joy and weariness, the everyday and the extraordinary. They help us pause mid-thought, sink with exhaustion, lean in with urgency, or settle into comfort. They cradle the weight of conversations, the tension we leave behind, the warmth that lingers after we rise.

They know the hush of waiting, and the quiet testament of a life in motion.

The old pond—
a frog jumps in,
the sound of water.

~ Bashō

Our constant, quiet companions! Recording, remembering, waiting. Chairs hold the outlines of our lives with a quiet fidelity; the watchers that clock us as we drift through the moments they mark.