Olive Roberts is a printmaker and artist based in Athens, Georgia, creating intricate linocuts, artist books, and mixed media works inspired by the wonders of nature and sea. Intrigued by our connection to and understanding of the natural world, her work explores the lives and personalities of plants and animals as a vessel for human connection and radical empathy. Roberts has displayed work in a variety of group exhibitions including most recently in the third annual Fresh Peaches Printmaking Exhibition at University of West Georgia, as well as her recent solo pop-up exhibition at Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta in May of 2026.

To me, the natural world, particularly the sea, has the most wonderful and elusive quality. There is so much still unknown about the ocean and its inhabitants, how the tiniest beings communicate with each other, and the extent of an organism’s consciousness. My art both follows the unique facts we do know and fills the gaps we don’t through a whimsical and surrealist lens, using the mark-making and graphic capabilities relief printmaking offers, and the delicate and vast possibilities of book arts and mixed media. With my linocuts, I experiment with what the tools can do, what marks they can make, and how they can enhance and draw in my viewers towards appreciation and empathy for the natural world. My book arts work plays with the structure of the book itself, and uses narrative, poetry, and tactility to bring you into the world of beings whose stories may or may not be told. These overlapping practices complement each other and give me the opportunity to zoom in on fine details and simple moments, and zoom out to explore bigger pictures. Through the use of print as a form of material expression and reproduction, I’m interested in how the process of slowing down, iterating, and playing generates new ideas and understandings. There’s much to learn from our marine counterparts and terrestrial friends, and my work is driven by that curiosity and gratitude for the inspiration they offer me.

You can find my work for sale around town at shops like K.A. Artist Shop, or in person at local artist markets. I teach printmaking workshops and classes around Georgia and the South, most recently being a week-long program hosted at Wildacres Retreat in Little Switzerland, NC alongside Shane McDonald, an oil painter based in Marietta to share in plein air painting and linocut printmaking.