Wiliam Skotte Olsen
was born into a
family strongly connected with the Salvation Army and played the trombone in
their band as a child.
Later, however, he turned an interest to drawing and
painting and was accepted at the Royal Danish Academy of Art.
At the same
time the hippie movement was dawning and Wiliam was fascinated by the charm,
the flower power and the drugs.
He was an ardent follower of Allen
Ginsbers's parole to: Turn on - Tune in and Drop out.
These became hectic
years.
He went to the Isle of Wright to hear Bob Dylan's consert there and
from then on Bob Dylan had a huge inpact on him.
In 1971 he and his girl friend, Yvonne Versteeg, followed the hippie pilgrimmage trail to Katmandu, going by bus and train over Turkey and Afganistan. The trip turned sour, however, when one of their close friends died and they were presented with the body and discovered that they themselves had to buy firewood and cremate it. He returned home as fast as he could - via a Russien military base in Moscow.
Back home things had changed, and he had difficulties adapting to a society where the times of flower power and peace, love and happiness had gone for good. Yvonne left him and in 1974 things went really bad. On his way home he lit fire to a tent where two boys were camping out. Fortunately, the father saw the fire and saved the boys, but Wiliam was sent to jail on a murder charge. He babbled about russian spies and atom bombs and was finally locked up in an asylum for 3½ years.
When he came out, his life had completely changed. He finally moved to the commune, Christiania, in Copenhagen where he managed a life, smoking and painting.
Wiliam died in 2005 from cancer.
Wiliams paintings are very popular among collectors in Denmark,
especially the old ones from the 60'ies.
His paintings are represented the
State Museum of Art in Copenhagen.