Funky Paul Olsen
Paul
Funky Paul Olsen is a retired college student who did pop and op art and, at age 24, was developing a following among Bay Area art collectors. Paul played drums with many top bands and musicians in the UK including Third World War, the Flirtations, Chairmen of the Board, and the great Graham Bond until his death.
Paul grew up immersed in art and photography in San Francisco, his first job being Production Control Assistant at Schmidt Lithograph, the largest printers west of Chicago, who made their own printing plates and ground their own inks. Paul learned the business from the 'ground up' and rapidly became expert in all things print and process photography. This would serve him well years later for designing and rendering special effects and main titles for blockbuster films.
A brief stint in the Marine Corps which he opted out of when they offered him an all expense-paid trip to Vietnam, a war he profoundly disagreed with, interrupting his burgeoning artistic drives. Upon returning to Civvy Street after winning his Federal court case, Paul became art director at a huge silkscreen production house that made everything from bumper stickers to 24-sheet complex 12 color billboards; moved on to 3-D displays, and then became San Francisco's most famous artist through his street art pursuits that culminated in the formation of The Psychedelic Raiders he partnered with the City's famous madam, Margot St. James, reulting in colorful painted hydrants all over town that the City rapidly repainted white, much to the disgust of the locals who loved their colorful hydrants. Paul was constantly in the local media---making regular appearances on the popular radio station, KSFO, local TV, and coverage in Herb Caen's column in the San Francisco Chronicle, many of which revolved around his "explosion paintings" wherein he would glop paint around a firecracker on a canvas, light the thing, and run away! The resultant colorful paintings were very popular as a send-up of "pop" art, which Paul was quite into. He was guest of honor on the Gypsy Rose Lee show where he exploded paint all over the studio AND on Gypsy, who screamed with delight. Paul also acheived world-wide coverage of his "Stop Art" creation at the top of one of San Francisco's steepest hills.
- Paul, Jack and Sam met at a gathering of the Artists Liberation Front, a short-lived Bay Area organization, and got to talking about how dance posters were giving way to art, how visual rock ’n’ roll was the thing.
- Jack was putting together a poster company with Sam Ridge, but he and Sam didn't know how to make posters...now how's that for moxie!?
- Paul knew how to do all that stuff, so it seemed they were destined for each other. Jack was the businessman, Sam was the salesman, and Paul was the artsman. It worked.
- Paul then formed Funky Features Posters with two others and produced the most sold poster image of all time, his visual interpretation of the Doors' iconic hit, "Light My Fire."
Funky Jack, Funky Sam, and Funky Paul befriended Procol Harum, who stayed at the Funky Features House in the Haight-Ashbury whenever they played the Fillmore. Oliver Reed bankrolled Funky Features to print their posters in England for distribution in Europe. Paul and Ollie became great friends....such a lovely, generous, entertaining, talented and charismatic man. The Funky 3 were part of the Haight-Ashbury revolution of the 60’s (or Hashbury as Hunter S. Thompson labelled it), the district in San Francisco that was like a siren song for hippies everywhere. 1967 was the “Summer of Love” and it was during this year that these incredible psychedelic prints were produced, capturing the excitement and revolution of the time. It didn’t take long for the “Summer of Love” to fizzle out, though, what it left behind were these amazing pieces of art and music that is still widely popular today.