She was born and raised in Rochester, New York, where she studied both visual art and dance. A career-altering injury trained her focus from touring as understudy with American Ballet Theater, to visual art and painting. She went on to attend the Rhode Island School of Design. Pettee Olsen moved to New York City in 1987. As a young artist, she found viable work in the limited edition printmaking industry. On Varick Street, she began working with a range of artists and their large-scale print projects including, Robert Motherwell, Frank Stella, James Rosenquist, Barbara Kruger and others. At age twenty-four, she was instrumental in establishing the fine arts limited edition lithography press, Oberon Press, in TriBeCa, as founding curator. She is the first woman to be a founding-curator of a professional limited edition lithography press in Manhattan. Pettee Olsen also holds a masters degree in arts pedagogy from Columbia University.