Lindsay Olson Residency

Lindsay Olson and the Art of Hydropower

Textile artist Lindsay Olson was selected as PNNL’s Artist-in-Residence to explore hydropower through art, research, and material storytelling.

During her residency, Olson visited PNNL, met with researchers, toured laboratories, and visited McNary Dam. Her project, From Flow to Power: The Art of Hydropower, translates what she learned into textile art using fabric, thread, stitch, texture, and color.

The work explores how flowing water becomes electricity, and how hydropower systems connect with fish, rivers, turbines, energy infrastructure, and people.

Lindsay visits the McNary Dam with a PNNL crew.
Textile artist Lindsay Olson visits McNary Dam with PNNL researchers Shannon Bates and Alison Colotelo. The tour provided visual references for her hydropower-inspired textile art. (Photo courtesy of Lindsay Olson.)

About the Artist

Lindsay Olson creates textile art inspired by science. Her work begins with research: conversations with scientists and engineers, close observation, technical references, and time spent in the places where science happens.

Through embroidery, beadwork, fabric, and layered textile techniques, Olson turns complex scientific ideas into artwork that invites people to slow down, look closely, and ask questions.

Learn more: Lindsay Olson Art

From Flow to Power

Olson’s PNNL project focuses on hydropower as both an energy system and a river system.

Her developing artwork includes references to spillways, fish-friendly turbines, fish ladders, bypass systems, flow batteries, transformers, pylons, transmission lines, and migrating fish species. 

Fish research became an important entry point for the project. Olson wrote that she was inspired by the idea that fish-friendly infrastructure can support energy generation at dams while helping fish move through hydropower systems. 

The creative process
Olson’s worktable and stitching frame show her hydropower triptych taking shape through fabric, thread, beadwork, and layered textile techniques. (Photo courtesy of Lindsay Olson.)

The Residency Visit

Olson’s residency included tours, research conversations, and a visit to McNary Dam.

During her visit, she learned about fish research, bio-acoustics and flow, manufacturing methods, digital twins, civil engineering, physical modeling, irrigation hydropower, telemetry, battery storage, and renewable energy. 

The McNary Dam visit became one of the project’s key visual references, informing Olson’s use of turbine forms, spillway movement, dam interior colors, and Columbia River imagery. 

Art as a Way to See Hydropower Differently

Much of hydropower is difficult to see: turbines inside dams, fish passage systems, underwater movement, electrical transmission, and the engineering choices that connect rivers to the grid.

Olson’s artwork brings some of those hidden systems into view. Her process uses textile forms to suggest water movement, fish migration, power generation, and the infrastructure that carries electricity beyond the dam.

The result is not a technical diagram. It is an artist’s interpretation of a complex energy system, shaped by research, scientific input, and the physical language of textile art.

Explore More

Center panel of art
The center panel of Olson’s hydropower triptych uses textile forms to interpret flowing water, turbines, electricity generation, and fish passage. (Artwork and photo courtesy of Lindsay Olson.)