A. H. JOHNSON ART

Artist Statement

I am a figurative artist who works across a variety of drawing and painting mediums. My work focuses on the body. Using expressive mark-making, energetic color, and decisive delineation of form, I explore subtle nuances of body language and expression. I use posture as well as occasional animal or mythological symbolism to explore themes of tension, constriction, identity, and the internal versus the external. A vital part of my work is showing the hand of the artist as part of the piece, avoiding excessive polish in favor of a raw approach that displays the process of observation, exploration, and discovery that comes along with drawing or painting from a model. I favor oil paints for their smoothness and the control over color they give me, chalk pastels for their speed, directness, and presence of mark, and ink for its permanence.I enjoy working in pairs or series, placing multiple works in relation to each other. Each piece informs the context of the other, creating meaning beyond that which is contained in each individual piece. This helps me to unearth personal narratives behind the work and also causes the audience to involve themselves in the work by forming their own connections between the pieces. My most recent work has focused on large chalk pastel drawings of dynamic poses set against animal or mythological imagery. I mount these drawings on foam core and cut the foam to suit the image, playing with the shape of the surface in relation to the image.