“Blown” is a 10 x 10 x 3 silver-leafed panel, with connectors for antique light bulbs.

Linnea Olson looks for items waiting to be found and makes art.

Her art will be displayed in an exhibit titled “Found” at Northern Essex Community College’s Linda Hummel-Shea ArtSpace from January 22 through February 22. An opening reception and talk will be held Thursday, January 25, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The ArtSpace is located in the Harold Bentley Library on the Haverhill campus, 100 Elliott St.

Beaches, dumps, flea markets, and thrift stores, is where Olson shops for any number of items whether created by nature or machine.

“I have spent an inordinate amount of my life looking for things,” she says. “Not things that are lost or misplaced, but rather things waiting to be found. By me, of course. Bottle caps, rocks, bones, fossils, shells, glass…I have found, claimed, pocketed, carted home and arranged these objects with a passion that has bordered on…well, obsession.”

An artist since a young age, her chosen medium had been painting until the day she began looking at everything she found as potential art.

“I had discovered the connection between my obsession and my art and suddenly I understood not only what I wanted to say but how to say it,” she said. “Gone were the days of medium specificity as suddenly I looked at everything (everything) as material. And I began assembling and gluing with a passion I’d not felt since…well, perhaps ever. I had found my language.

Throughout the years, Olson’s work has appeared in group shows in Colorado, California, and Massachusetts. This is her first solo show.

NECC offers an associate degree in general studies: art with a focus on specific area of the arts, such as fine arts, multimedia, photography or visual communications.

The ArtSpace is opened during library hours which are Thursday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It is closed Saturday and Sunday.

This show is sponsored by NECC’s art department and the NECC Foundation. For additional information on the exhibit contact Patricia Kidney at pkidney@necc.mass.edu or Marc Mannheimer at mmannheimer@necc.mass.edu