About Me

Fortunately there has been a lot of improvement since my first grade work as seen here.

Pamela Ione Olson was born in Wellington, Kansas, 1945. My mother, a music and art lover, encouraged my artistic interests.  In junior high I took oil painting classes with her and often painted in her studio. In high school I taught myself how to play the piano and wrote classical music and poetry.

As a painting major, I attended Texas Woman’s University for 2 years under the tutelage of Toni LaSelle, a student of Hans Hoffman. After developing an allergy to oil paints and turpentine, I turned my attention to acrylics and watercolors.

I transferred to the University of Kansas as a painting and art history major and graduated with a BFA in 1969, followed by a BAE in 1971. (I was greatly influenced by my studies of Chinese and Japanese painting.)

I taught art in southern Missouri for three years before accepting an art instructor position in Kansas City, Kansas where I stayed until retirement in 2001. I received my MA in 1982. As an art teacher, I conducted tours with my students to artist studios, galleries and museums in Kansas City in an effort to open their eyes to a world beyond the streets where they lived. In the 1990’s, I was involved with several community projects. One involved designing and creating a 6 feet x 6 feet brick relief of a school’s mascot using 500 raw bricks that were then fired in my kiln and reassembled on site. Also I was the liaison and manager of a sculpture project done by my students for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Additionally I spearheaded the creation of a 50 feet long mural on the exterior of a school.

Upon arriving in Kansas City in 1974, I became involved with the River Quay Art Association and was its secretary in 1974-1975. When that group disbanded, I was one of the founders of the Kansas City Artist Coalition and was the original publisher and editor of the KCAC Newsletter from 1975-1981 as well as a member of the Board of Directors in 1978-1979.

In 1995, I married Bill Angilan, a sculpture graduate from the University of Missouri in Kansas City. Today I continue to paint in my studio in Shawnee, Kansas.