Olive Markham
'roto': Span. adj.- pierced, ragged, torn
photo by Juhney Markham, 2008
I am Olive Michael Markham, born 1968 in Smyrna, Tennessee. An Air Force Brat, was moved around every few years until I departed myself to Texas Tech University for four years, then another couple years at Univ. of North Texas where in 1992 I finally got a Bachelors in Fine Art.
After 10 years of traveling, tramping, drawing and painting, I ended up in the Sierra Nevada foothills in Northern California with my longtime friend and partner, Dyana. We married in 2003, had a beautiful daughter, Juhney Azul, in 2004. Now we spend our days working, trying to find work, exploring and learning with Juhney, and drawing, always drawing.
As of 2010, we've been here 7 years, the longest I've lived anywhere my whole life. Moving around so much has definitely affected the work I do. The biggest influence has been the migration from painting to drawing. Too many paintings have been unsold, given away or thrown away because of size and bulkiness, a small percentage kept or even photographed. But I always had my drawing books and journals. I grew to love drawing as an end, and now pretty much draw exclusively. Drawing fits very well I think with my main subject matter- provincial folks and their surroundings-. Drawing is cheap(er), immediate, reworked, erased, dirtied, smudged, can also be torn and forgotten. Similar to the people I depict and live around, also I guess like me and my little family.
UNT, Denton, Texas, 1992
Juhney in front of 'Some on Walls' '09