MIXED MEDIA 3-D

SKATING ON COLD WAX

Slathering oil paint mixed with the popular medium of cold wax, can be classified as the messiest work I do it's also one of the most frustrating and satisfying techniques out there. When is it finished? How many layers are enough? What is the artist trying to capture, besides abstract expressionism? What makes an abstraction good versus amateurish? Which tools, color shifting and linear paths hold the viewers interest? These questions have haunted me for a number of years. When my face, hands or studio are smeared with these creations, I threaten to quit...then a composition works...and I'm encapsulated again. Slathering oil paint mixed with the popular medium of cold wax, can be classified as the messiest work I do, It�s also one of the most frustrating and satisfying techniques out there. When is it finished? How many layers are enough? What is the artist trying to capture, besides abstract expressionism? What makes an abstraction good versus amateurish? Which tools, color shifting and linear paths hold the viewers interest? These questions have haunted me for a number of years. When my face, hands or studio are smeared with these creations, I threaten to quit...then a composition works...and I'm encapsulated again.

STILL DRIVEN TO ABSTRACTION

Using a combination of collage, pen & ink, photography, graphite, hand-made/decorated paper,acrylic mediums or oil and cold wax, these abstractions play with space on a flat surface. Though some are more heavily textured, they all concede that movement and change can be expressed with paint and passion.

SURREALISTIC STRANGERS

Perhaps my favorite go-to series after moving back to the states from Europe, this particular series appeals to my quirky, weird side. Painting models, dressing them in costumes, fabrics and placing them in either simple backdrops, nature or strange surroundings, I create my own theater company of strange souls. Then I photograph them. Rather than use Photoshop or other digital means, I work completely on the surface of the photograph.They may come into your life as strangers but leave as surrealist portraits.

VISUAL POETRY

I began this rapidly expanding series after perusing T.S. Elliot's Little Gidding, the last part of his Four Quartets. Disturbed but intrigued, I kept returning to the evocative words, descriptive allegories and emotional impact of this particular �fire� segment. Using limited collage, acrylics and an abstract, expressionistic style, I tried to capture the wartime angst and evocative language of an era that is timeless.

ENIGMAS

What captures your interest? Is there another realm of life beyond what we can visually see? Are you tired of passive still life, representative landscape, amateurish abstraction? This series features the unusual...human, animalistic, obscure symbolism, analogies and questions.

SEW WHAT

Irony leaps from these sewn creations. During high school, I was advised that Home Economics was a necessity for the feminine sex. How I despised sewing or anything domestic! Yet, entering the next phase of creativity, I began stitching hand-dyed and hoarded fabrics onto my prints and other substrates at a retreat with renowned fiber artist Leisa Rich. This evolved into many other mixed media artworks combined with fabrics, recycled clothing, and intriguing yardage. Since I'm particularly intrigued by Japanese kimonos, obis and weavings, these are sometimes part of the inclusions. Numbering in the hundreds, these small jewels capture my soul their composition, textures and juxtaposition of colors make me contented. Each one is a culmination of my life.

IMAGINARIUM: ANIMAL CRACKERS

My weird side morphs into simply surrealism but this includes elements of animas and animalism These include my photography, especially those characters created to represent the various creatures that habitat the earth. Those creatures combine human characteristics, a historical practice explored over art�s thousands of years.

DRAWN BY NATURE

Those who know me personally realize that I seldom sit still since my hands and mind function on multiple layers, all simultaneously. One of the results of this habitude is briefly explored in this series?these imaginary botanical drawings are done in pen & ink, without planning or plotting. Though some of the sketches are triggered by actual plant life, others are solely the result of an overactive inspiration. I often add a geometrical or unexpected detail that warrant extra study. I?ve been creating these works on paper for 25 years, continuing their birth wherever I?m traveling or residing. By now, they number in the hundreds, stacked and silent.

BOTANICA

I am engrossed with nature, its beauty and the sheer enormity of plant life. These monoprints reflect a minuscule portion of botanical creations. My drawings are combined with nature prints, printmaking techniques and other mediums. Other elements are woven into each monoprint surface to replicate seasons of growth and the intricacies that intertwine botanical variety. Step inside and breathe.

SKIN DEEP

For the past several years I've become intrigued with bodypainting and the world that revolves around this art form. For centuries, mankind has utilized body paint for rituals, decoration, theatrical applications and as a celebration of the human form as a palette. I was already doing limited application on friends or models but then I met Scott Fray and Madelyn Greco who created Living Art America. They introduced me to the global family of bodypainters that careen outside reality. These photos were primarily taken at the World Bodypainting Festival in Austria and Living Art America?s events in America. I enhance each one with surface creative elements so that the embellishments accelerate the viewers? concentration on details.

SECRET SHAME

This passionate series revolves around systematic sexual abuse that has evolved in every generation and can happen to females (and the male gender) of any age. Incest, rape, human trafficking, torture and a proliferation of other crimes against babies, adolescents, adults and even the elderly continue to scar our psyche, morality and very existence. Yes, I am the victim of sexual abuse on several levels and layers; these attacks shaped my life like it has for every other innocent victim. Though my particular renditions feature the feminine perspective, they are not alone as the recipients of unwanted attention of the worst kind. I utilize my thoughts and free verse along with my photography, historical ephemera, fiber, handmade papers and miscellaneous elements to compose these representative snapshots of personal horrors. As a raging by-product of contemporary society, these date rapes, gropings, sexual innuendos, workplace harassment and even Presidential statements continue to reawaken that secret shame, echoing and repeating those silent memories. I have no hope that it will ever end, at least during my lifetime. As an artist, I believe we need to politicize this outrage

EXPANDING BODIES

All are oversized expressive abstract acrylic paintings on canvas. There are also a few other mediums thrown into the mix.

PUZZLES

In that I use many different techniques, I wanted to find a new way to combine disparate work into one dimensional piece. Using found objects, my husbands woodwork, wooden panels of varying depths and unexpected twists, this series represents my newest creation as well as chapters in my life.

BOTANICAL BYWAYS

Using my drawings, pen & ink, acrylic, collage and other mediums, I layer these botanical creations onto wooden substrates.

VESSELS

The term ?vessel? can be all inclusive to include the body, organs, nautical vehicles and a container that is hollow, empty or full of something. I am merely exploring both the decorative and utilitarian reference to bowls, pitchers, urns, vases that command attention in a still life or as the only focal point of a composition. I favor the slab-built or hand turned earthenware that stretches around the globe in every culture.

WARM AND COOL

Balancing the smooth potential of Venetian plaster with its super power of creating texture, I play with abstract still life objects. They don?t argue, squirm or need a bathroom break. While some of the pieces focus only on shapes and vessels, other include lemons, oranges and other juicy food items.

CONFLUENCE

Use your imagination. Ground water seeps, meanders, joining rivulets, expanding into streams, rivers, strait and the ocean. All that water, all that life relies on those molecules to converge and meetin a confluence.

WHEN WRONG IS RIGHT

COLOR CODED: DRAWN BY NATURE

For over thirty years I�ve been drawing flowers and plants�primarily imaginative. Sometimes I�ll include unexpected details, geometrical shapes or unusual colorations. These still speak to my fantasy side.

Sandee Johnson