Iskra Fine Art

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Introducing the Travelers Suite | A New Affordable Print Series for the Holidays

December 4, 2019 by Iskra Leave a Comment

River House landscape by Iskra
“River House,” Archival pigment print © Iskra Johnson

Greetings from the road! I have begun to travel for the first time in years, with my eyes far away. I hardly remember how to pack my bags, much less a passport, so I am starting with what’s close, Portland and Victoria, within easy flight for a windblown gull. It has been a difficult couple of months. Many of you know that my mother passed away in September. It was a wrenching loss, and her life and passing are chronicled in my remembrance here and in the obituary written by the New York Times. My mother was a writer and activist, and her last book, published at 85, was her traveler memoir, titled Seeing for Myself: A Political Traveler’s Memoir. This coming year is dedicated to her memory, and to her adventurous spirit.

From a series called “Traveler”, the new prints here are inspired by the mind state of journeys far and near. Portals, gates, trains, sky, the glimpse from the window as scenes overlay with memory and time and possibility expands. These are multiple exposure images begun in my phone as a glimpse of “something” – captured in a split second and later reflected upon. A double exposure is an acknowledgment that we are never in just one place in time. The exposure is random, but not. Always there is the chance of unexpected poetry in how images blend and collide. You can ask yourself questions like: is the composition balanced? Is there a contrast of dark and light and shapes and mood? Or you can ask the existential version: 1) When is a splatter a flight of birds? 2) When is a blur a memory? 3) When is a memory a lie? 4) When is a lie the truth…..

The new series is printed in affordable editions of 50 with an image size of 12 x 16 on 17 x 22 sheets of German Etching. The prints are sold unframed in my shop for $150 including shipping. I welcome studio visits for local friends and art lovers. Take a look and let me know what you think. (Click through on each image to view large scale and in situ.)

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Digital Collage, Prints Tagged With: art inspired by travel, creative digital printmaking, double exposure, travel photography, Traveler Suite Print Series

Iskra in Under the Influence, Opening December 5 at SAM Gallery

November 22, 2019 by Iskra 1 Comment

Plum Wine Iskra SAM Show
“Plum Wine,” limited edition print on panel, 24 x 36 © Iskra Johnson
You are invited to the opening of

Under the Influence

at SAM Gallery
December 5, 6 – 7:30 PM
Seattle Art Museum, 1300 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101

Artists influenced by Asia are featured in SAM Gallery’s final show of the year. I am excited to be part of this group of artists including Deborah Bell, Alfred Harris, Laura Van Horne and Junko Yamamoto. Each of us is influenced by Asia in very different ways, involving surface, paper, collage, markmaking and photographic innovations. Join in this festive opening and celebrate the Asian influence on Northwest Contemporary art.

My work in this exhibit will show a new way of presenting my work on panel. The limited edition prints are meticulously mounted and sealed in layers of cold wax medium, which creates a subtle hand crafted sheen. Without traditional framing the work becomes an immediate experience of surface and color, unimpeded by reflections. The surfaces are hard to photograph, but here is a capture in the studio showing “As Above So Below,” one of the works that will be shown. If you would like to preview and reserve before the opening I will have these pieces in the studio through next Tuesday before they are delivered to the gallery. Give me a shout and I would be happy to show you in person. There will be an edition of 5 available for each piece, framed traditionally in plexiglass and brushed silver, or mounted in cold wax on panel. All sales through SAM Gallery.

Archival print mounted on panel by Iskra
Print mounted on panel with cold wax
“The Heron,” archival pigment print mounted on panel © Iskra Johnson

 I look forward to seeing you to celebrate the launch of the winter holidays!

Filed Under: Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Prints Tagged With: Asian-inspired art, Cold wax on prints, Iskra at SAM Gallery, Iskra shows, Under the Influence

Invitation to Seattle Arts North Studio Tour, October 12 & 13, 10-5 PM

October 6, 2019 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Summer Storm Archival Print by Iskra
“Summer Storm,” Archival Pigment Print on German Etching © Iskra Johnson

 

Please join Laura Brodax and me at Modern Glaze, in our first time as part of Seattle’s

Arts North Studio Tour
October 12th and 13th, 10 AM – 5 PM
Studio 10 | Modern Glaze
14800 Westminster Way, Shoreline, WA 98133

Visit 10 North Seattle Studios in one weekend, and see a wide range of beautiful art, glass, jewelry and ceramics from some of Seattle’s best artists. Click these links to download the Studio Brochure or Map.

I will have a wide selection of prints, framed and unframed, as well as mixed media work on Venetian Plaster. Laura will be showing her highly collectable ceramic ware and photographic works. We are both photo based artists, but we have taken the medium in very different directions. I love the opportunity for our work to be shown together, and look forward to meeting new friends and old.

Brodax blue platter Arts North Studio Tour

Brodax Modern Glaze platters
Laura Brodax Ceramic Ware at Modern Glaze

 

Filed Under: Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past Tagged With: Arts North Studio Tour, Iskra Fine Art Shows 2019, Modern Glaze Seattle, Seattle Art Studio Tours, Seattle Autumn Art Events

Arts North Studio Tour: Save the Date!

September 8, 2019 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Modern Glaze studio North Seattle Arts Tour

Please save the date for the Arts North Studio Tour in Seattle this October 12th and 13th!  Ceramic artist and photographer Laura Brodax has opened her new (and spectacular) studio space at the edge of the Broadview neighborhood, and will be hosting me as her guest artist for our first time on this tour.

Check out Modern Glaze on Instagram to see what the fuss is all about. I have admired Laura’s photography and ceramics for many years, and it is an honor to show with her. I will be displaying unframed prints of various sizes as well as some larger framed works and mixed media panels. Below are some of Laura’s ceramic works incorporating her photography, collage and serigraph.

Laura Brodax Ceramics
Laura Ceramics, courtesy of Modern Glaze

 

Iskra Studio Sale 2019
“As Above, So Below,” archival pigment print, ©Iskra Johnson

Be sure to visit the Arts North Studio Tour website and Facebook for a preview of work and a map of all 10 studios. Modern Glaze is located at 14800 Westminster Way N, Shoreline, WA 98133. Tour hours, 10-5 October 12th and 13th. I hope to see you there!

Filed Under: Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past Tagged With: Arts North Studio Tour, Iskra Studio Tour, Modern Glaze open studio, North Seattle Artists

Northwest Mystic Summer

July 21, 2019 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Lummi Blues, archival pigment print by Iskra
Lummi Blues, archival pigment print by Iskra

Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste.

It’s what everything else isn’t.

–Theodore  Roethke

Greetings from the Pacific Northwest summer, which arrived a few hours ago, sneaking in with a sun hat and a good book while the rest of the country fries in humid torment. A bit late, but divine. It’s hard to stay in the studio when the garden calls, begging me to count the lily pads and swoon in the golden light of the locust tree.

Yet, here I am, indoors, attempting to translate the outdoors after recent travels in landscape. The new work for SAM Gallery’s November show “Artists Influenced by Asia,” is directly influenced by the immediacy of nature here along the Salish Sea. A few weeks ago I went up to Samish Island with two dear friends, painters Chris Gedye and Patty Haller to see Patty’s new studio. It was complete bliss. We woke up in the morning to low tide’s iridescence, herons perched sentinel along the sand and wind stirring the branches of trees along the bluff. Off to the west was an island I’ve never seen from this perspective: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Digital Collage, Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past Tagged With: Fishtown, Iskra Work in Progress, Lummi Island art, Northwest Mystic School, Roethke quote slowness, SAM Gallery, Samish island art, Skagit Valley art

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Iskra Fine Art Blog

the creative process | conversations with artists | the contemplative impulse in art

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Playground studies: scouting the golden hour with Playground studies: scouting the golden hour with @concretespaces
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Yesterday, Memorial Day, I took on the dreaded tas Yesterday, Memorial Day, I took on the dreaded task of shopping for hiking boots for walking the border of Wales and England and roaming around Ireland. I have the kind of feet that were born to complain. I was once on an 8 mile hike in heavy leather boots I had not truly broken in and they did that thing with a crease right on the main joint of your big toe. This was approximately 1 million years ago, with 7 miles to go before I could take them off and I can still feel the throbbing. So I tried to live in slippers for the rest of my life, but this will not work on 7 to 10 mile treks through bogs and scree. There were approximately six suitors in the shoe arena, each of them screaming Ouch! Ugly! Why me and my feet! And then I found these boots and it was a heart throb of love at first sight. Please direct your hearts and prayers that are not being spent on more important things —of which there are many— towards my feet and making it through the first flush of love to actually being able to wear these shoes 10 miles a day. If things don’t go well, I may just sit in my room in Killarney or Hay-and-Wye and paint watercolors of my boots. I will take romance in whatever form it arrives.
New project in the works: Nucor Steel Plant. . . New project in the works: Nucor Steel Plant. 
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#newmediaartists #techspressionism #photographicart #nucorsteel #industrialphitography
WAKING UP WAKING UP
Thank you everyone who came out to Spotlight North Thank you everyone who came out to Spotlight North! It was wonderful to host people in my home and share the garden. Saturday morning a Golden Kinglet appeared. This is a truly magical yellow bird — so fast and so shy that I have never been able to take a good photograph. This bird only comes two days a year, first stopping in the branches of the tree above the pond and then briefly examining the moss. Before I can grab my camera, it has flown. However brief the visit, it always feels like a blessing. 

I was happy to see a range of work go to new new homes, much of it inspired by the garden and the visiting birds. This morning I am sharing images going back 20 years, of my life with birds and the garden. When I bought my home, it sat on a long mangy lawn contained by chain-link and concrete and a picket fence. It is now a wildlife sanctuary: Protect what you love.✨

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