Iskra, Author at Iskra Fine Art

Winter Paintings from the Sea

January 1, 2017 by Iskra 2 Comments

“When a young painter said he wanted to paint the moon, someone pointed out, ”But you can’t paint the moon, the moon belongs to Max Ernst.”— from Rowing Toward Eden, By Ted Morgan

New Year’s morning has dawned with sunlight and snow. The forecast is for optimism, a lovely antidote to the last months of 2016. In spite of temperatures near freezing, my mind is on the beach. I have been finishing paintings for the Museo Gallery winter show opening in January. Although the title of the show is “Beach Party,” every rowdy bash has someone who wanders off to find shells and tumbled glass and the perfect small stone to put with the other five hundred and fifty in the back yard, and that would be me. The bright colors will have to come from somebody else’s beach towel, I am just too immersed in celadon.

Glass moon bottle photograph — Photo © Iskra Johnson

For the weeks that I have been painting water and shells Max Ernst’s “Moon in a Bottle” has floated on the periphery of my mind. [Read more…]

New Work Emerging from the Dark of November

November 29, 2016 by Iskra Leave a Comment

"Celadon" industrial waterscape by Iskra — “Celadon,” limited edition archival pigment print on canvas and paper. 40 x 40 inches.

“Surely one of the most magnificent feats of the human brain is its ability to hold past, present, future and their imagined alternatives in constant parallel, to offset the tedium of washing dishes with the chance to be simultaneously mentally in Bangkok, or in Don Draper’s bed . . . .What differentiates humans from animals is exactly this ability to step mentally outside of whatever is happening to us right now, and to assign it context and significance.”— Ruth Whippman

In the aftermath of the election I find Ruth Whipmann’s essay “Actually, Let’s Not Be in the Moment” particularly compelling. I may have company in the desire to be elsewhere, rather than in this new country that feels like an audition for the ’80’s or other even less hospitable eras, perhaps 1016 or so. I am grateful for the extraordinary lifewire of the artists, writers and activists on social media who are doubling down on beauty and various forms of creative activism. After a three-day collective bender most in my circle are back to work and on fire to make the most of every precious moment. The determination is contagious. [Read more…]

Painting with Water . . . . “don’t be afraid, be curious”

November 1, 2016 by Iskra 1 Comment

To paint with water is to go swimming out beyond the breakers. If you let yourself drift for a moment in the line between sky and sea, if you let your body become long like a fin and your eyes go wide and light with clouds, if you completely let go you can be sure that in the next moment the current will shift and the waves will crash upon your fragile ribs and spin you into not knowing.

Painting with water is just one big risk of drowning.

To remain curious while going under takes a greater leap of faith than I am accustomed to. Working small however— wading — takes no courage or faith at all. It’s just a place to be, a tide pool. If you are tiny and the world is tiny and you are eye to eye with the barnacles on the edge of the deep blue shell this is simply happiness and why argue?

Here are three little Water Babies, eight by eight inches, that seem to have survived the surf. I am learning how to paint with acrylic ink, and I am mesmerized. It’s like you can make your own weather wherever you go.

[Read more…]

Morning Pages | Contemplative Drawing Practice

September 20, 2016 by Iskra 1 Comment

metaphysik-mixed-media-iskra — Vocabulary Practice, Mixed Media Drawing © Iskra Johnson

“Procrastination and mourning are tied tightly together: for to procrastinate is to mourn the precariousness of your creation even before you bring it into the world.

We should perhaps spend more time dwelling on the rich virtuality that precedes the fall into existence. That is, after all, what true contemplation must be about: a commerce with the irreality of things, a learned habit to see them from the privileged perspective of their pre- and nonexistence. Rather than get caught up in the misleading appearance of the material world, we transport ourselves back to a moment when the world, with all its holes and imperfections, hasn’t happened yet.”

— Costa Bradatan, From The Stone, New York Times, September 17, 2016

When I read “Why Do Anything? A Meditation on Procrastination” this weekend I wept with recognition. Accompanied by an exquisite illustration by Leigh Wells, the piece cuts right through to the contradictions and poetry of the contemplative state. [Read more…]

New Art from The Garden, or, How I Learned to Get Over Myself and Love Flowers

August 29, 2016 by Iskra 3 Comments

What kind of fool plants flowers in late July, when the temperature is scalding and the dirt has become so dry it has closed like a fist and refuses even the longest kiss of the sprinkler? That would be someone who comes late to the love affair of flowers, someone who held out until the last minute against their invitation. That person would have said, “I hate orange and pink together.” “Flowers are banal.” “Flowers are so obvious, and they have no bones in winter. I’m a winter person.” And lastly, “Flowers will break your heart.”

This is very true. Just now I have been standing in the pungent dust with my garden hose wondering how many more times I will have to water the ailing flock of pink cosmos and orange rudbeckia until they stop falling over. I have snapped off countless dry husks from the daisies as I embrace the ruthless ritual of “dead-heading.” I have wept at the delicate hydrangea that refuses to thrive no matter how much shade and water and worry I offer. Yet every time I open the front door my heart is flustered all over again by the canna, the petunia and the dazzling blue lobelia. True: your heart breaks, again and again, but that doesn’t seem to matter once you fall into this kind of love.