| Donald Olson was born on March 22, 1940 in Killdeer, North Dakota. He was the second child and first son of George and Josephine Olson, and he was born at their home along the base of the Killdeer Mountains. |
| Olson grew up on a ranch environment, taking care of livestock and repairing fences in a true wilderness. Juxtaposed between expansive rolling prairie and the gumbo-filled Badlands, the Killdeer Mountains were a perfect place to learn about wildlife. |
| As a young man Olson joined the army and traveled to Panama and Germany. When his army time was over, he returned to North Dakota. He had found that he was gifted with drawing and painting, and he turned to art and sculpture. In the years since Olson has been painting off and on as a hobby. |
| He married Donna Himes from Columbus, Ohio in 1975. In 1977 they bore their first child, Shawn, in Medina, ND. In 1978 the Olson’s moved to Grove City, OH. There they had a second child, Faith, in 1979. |
| Finding work in the urbanite community of central Ohio was not easy for an ex-cowboy. He worked off and on as a bike repair man, a ceramicist for Scioto Ceramics, a drafter, and a jack-of-all-trades handy-man with his friend Harold Pennington. |
| Work became more difficult when Olson had an automobile accident that caused a herniated disk in his spine. For the rest of his life the disk caused pain to him after any extended period of time spent sitting. This affected his art. He slowed down after the accident. |
| In 1982 Olson had a third child, Eric. The Olsons soon moved to the west side of Columbus, OH. |
| As his interests turned more to religion, Olson spent less time painting and sculpting and more time making clocks. He became interested in time cycles, and applied his artistic skills in adorning his 24-hour clocks with paintings of wilderness horizons. |
| To this day he's still working on his clocks. He's also started to get back into his art. |
