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.
Back to LA and Paul made friends with top airbrush illustrators Peter Lloyd, Ed Scarisbrick (both Brits), and Bob Hickson. Peter taught Paul the ins and outs of airbrushing and illustrator's tricks (Paul never went to art school). Ed shared a studio on Santa Monica Blvd with the "inventor" of chrome lettering, Charlie White. Charlie grew up and went to school with Jim Dow, and when Jim needed an airbrush whiz to put the finish on the Starship Enterprise, he called Charlie, hoping he could do it. Charlie couldn't devote the time, asked Ed if he knew someone, Ed called Paul and said, "Paul, how would you like to piant the Starship Enterprise?"
Uhh....
Jim suggested Paul try translucent pearl paints for the Enterprise, and the rest is history. Paul met Richard on several occasions during his 18 month stint with the Enterprise and then designing and rendering many of the V'Ger entrance effects. Peter Lloyd then worked with Richard on Tron at Paul's studio in the "La Bamba" house atop the Silverlake Hills.
After Star Trek, Paul painted the airplane model for "Airplane," worked on FX designs for "Brainstorm," then developed a backlit photocomposition technique he learned from John Millerburg enabling him to create unlimited variations of airbrush art from the same piece of art which he could produce in his studio and expose and develop in his kitchen. This led to many major film titles including Die Hard, The Abyss, Back to the Future II & III, Terminator 2, Robocop 2, Delta Force 2, Explorers, and many others.
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 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.
For a third time (!) he moved back to England to be near his son, was invited to Gary and Franky's 40th wedding anniversary at Kenney Jones' polo club in Surrey, met lots of old friends and decided to move to the Surrey countryside, where he ran into Tony Robinson, an ardent Trekkie who got Paul an appearance at the Destination Star Trek London 2012 convention. Paul was so moved by his three day experience, speaking to thousands of fans that he decided to write his book, Creating the Enterprise, which led him to meet up in LA with Richard, Jim, Mark and Ron. Project Enterprise developed from their second meeting a year later and since then Paul has devoted all his time and savings to the project to rebuild our Starship Enterprise for the world to enjoy. But we need your help to do it. Please join us on this venture to the stars in the most beautiful spaceship ever to grace the galaxy.
Paul Olsen
Moving to England for the second time (family reasons), Paul worked with Ridley Scott on 1492 (title at Paul's suggestion) and with Phillip Noyce on The Saint. He then started a snack food company which went belly-up when the investment angel was humiliated by being cuckolded on the front page of the Sun newspaper, Murdoch's most popular tabloid, sending the angel into hiding for 6 months and sending the company into receivership.
Paul wrote his groundbreaking The Book of Love, moved back to Los Angeles and toured the country making radio and TV appearances promoting his book.
Moving to London at the urging of Gary Brooker and his wife, Paul was one Sunday morning walking around the corner to get the Times at the newsagent when a loud horn incessantly beeped at him from behind. It was Robin Trower and his manager who recognized Paul from behind not even knowing that he had moved to England! What are the chances? Olympic Studios was across the street and Robin was mixing his first solo album after leaving Procol. Paul ended up doing 7 of Robin's most iconic album covers--earning him 4 gold records and 1 platinum.
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.
