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Vashon Island Visual Artist Studio Tour Preview

April 29, 2018 by Iskra 1 Comment

Two Tulip Prints by Iskra
Two Tulips, prints based on Venetian plaster pieces, available here.

Just a few days until the Vashon Island Visual Artist’s Studio Tour! I will be showing work in the lovely satellite studio of Vashon artist Cathy Sarkowsky, and will be there for the entire show which goes from Saturday and Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM May 5-6 and 12-13. Check out the studio map here. This studio tour is a chance to explore new directions and show work that hasn’t been seen before. Although I will have industrial work on hand, most of the prints and mixed media pieces will be nature inspired, and come from the contemplative side of life, based on my garden.

When I bought my house 16 years ago I was self-identified as a Capitol Hill Person. Like my neighbors, I insisted the city ended at the Montlake Bridge, and my idea of a garden was a window box with a struggling coleus and some pansies. So when the realtor told me the house came with a 7,000 square foot lot I almost fainted. The first glimpse was daunting: chain link, a 60-foot RV pad, and a patchy lawn covered with broken bits of landcsape lighting chewed by a dog. Plus, the leaking pond with a pug-faced gargoyle with a broken wing. The owners handed me a tube of black sealant, fish pellets, a pair of size 4 hip waders and waved goodbye. I vowed to stay inside and do important things, like read and make art in the funky but promising studio.

And then the Heron arrived.

Visitation The Heron print by Iskra
The Heron | Visitation, limited edition print available here.

It was early on a November morning, in that watery oyster light the Pacific Northwest does so well. The heron stood perfectly still outside the picture window. I didn’t realize until he had flown away that he had taken all the goldfish with him. In flight his wings seemed to cover half the pond, and I felt like I had been visited by royalty. From there it was a rapid ride towards the obsessive life of the newborn Earth Goddess. I went out and bought as many plants as possible that looked good next to each other but required different amounts of water and light and which promptly keeled over from enthusiastic miss-treatment. I told anyone who would volunteer to advise me that I had taken a stand against flowers and that the only thing that mattered was winter, fall, and how different greens and textures played against each other. In other words I was completely deluded, and missing the whole point. I eventually grew into the fact of the changing seasons, and the matter of fact magic of death and rebirth and its necessary angel: color. (Read about that here.)

Over the years I grew flowers and stole flowers and found them by the side of the road and fell madly in love with each one and yes got my heart broken by the sound of their petals falling. Here are two miniature works about just that, the sound of orchid leaves and what gets left behind. Autumn leaves in color are heart stopping, but equally lovely is the roadkill of leaves run over by cars.

Botanical orchid miniature on venetian plaster

I like to use these small pieces as points of focus with other objects. They can live framed or unframed:

Venetian Plaster Stil Life

Here are a few more of the mixed media plaster pieces that will be available on Vashon. I am posting more each week in the Venetian plaster portfolio.

Snowdrop flower on Venetian plaster by Iskra
Snowdrop | mixed media on Venetian plaster | 12×12 inches | $600
Autumn Rose Venetian plaster by Iskra
Autumn Rose | mixed media on Venetian plaster | 12×12 inches | $600
Red poppies on Venetian plaster by Iskra
At the Pond | mixed media on Venetian plaster | 12×12 inches | $600

As any gardener knows, impermanence is the name of the game. Change or die. Or, change and die. What better icon of that than the dragonfly, symbol of transformation? I have revisited the subject of impermanence through this print numerous times over the years, each time seeing some new way to shift detail or value. The latest iteration is subtle, a brighter variation, with a larger edition and smaller size to make it more affordable (click anywhere on these three images to see it in my shop.): Dragonfly print by IskraLastly, here is a piece I have never shown, based on my walks around Greenlake and the favorite inlet where the willows drape over the water and the ducks find their bliss.

Water Kimono Print by Iskra
Water Kimono, archival pigment print, a new addition to The Floating World series.

Give me a shout if you cannot get to Vashon Island or would like to see any of this work in advance. And keep up to date on the latest additions to the studio sale on Facebook and Instagram. I look forward to seeing new and old friends next weekend!

dragonfly by Iskra

 

Filed Under: botanical art, Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Print Sale, Recent Posts, The Garden Tagged With: botanical art, Iskra shows, PNW Art shows, studio sale, vashon island studio tour, venetian plaster, VIVA Studio Tour

Save the Date! Vashon Island Artist Studio Tour May 2018

April 9, 2018 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Cathy Sarkowsky and Iskra Johnsonstudio Vashon tour
The vista from Cathy Sarkowsky’s lovely Vashon garden

This spring I am excited to show work in the Vashon Island Visual Artist’s Studio Tour (VIVA). Vashon artist Cathy Sarkowsky has generously offered her satellite studio to me so I can be part of this annual event on one of the Northwest’s most idyllic islands. Over 100 artist studios will be open the first two weekends of May:  Saturday and Sunday 10 AM – 5 PM May 5-6 and 12-13.

Sarkowsky studio vashon island May 2018
This is the studio cottage I will be showing in.I cannot wait to settle in with a cup of tea and watch for hummingbirds.

If you recall the Gardener’s Almanac of Irreproducible Phenomena (a title designed expressly to confound google search) you may remember that I have done a large body of botanical natural history work. The Almanac is a series of vignettes that appear without warning, documenting the cycles of death and rebirth in my little backyard Eden. On Vashon Island I will have many of my garden-inspired Venetian plaster miniatures for sale, as well as a variety of prints of all sizes, including a collection of very affordable mini-prints. If you would like to see the Venetian plaster work in advance it is currently up on my site and is available for pre-sale. More work will be added in the next few weeks, so check back there or follow me on Instagram, where I will be posting these pieces throughout the month.  There will also be work from other series, including Industrial Pastorale and The Floating World.

I hope you will mark your calendar and come visit as the sunny season begins. If you live in Seattle I promise you the island will erase your urban mood in about five minutes and leave you in a bucolic trance. At least, that’s what it does to me. . . . .

Keep up with the latest on the VIVA studio tour on Facebook. A studio map is provided here.

Happy Spring!

Iskra

Iskra Mini Print Hydrangea
Logic Study, with Hydrangea, mixed media on Venetian plaster, © Iskra Johnson

Filed Under: botanical art, Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Recent Posts, The Garden Tagged With: Cathy Sarkowsky, Iskra Botanical, Iskra shows, PNW arts, Vashon Island Visual Artist Studio, VIVA

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Sunday studies of motion and emotion. I’ve been Sunday studies of motion and emotion. I’ve been in an obstinately “unproductive” space this past week, but used my time well. Motion: I went swimming for the first time in 5 years; in the autumn’s holy light, the lake is a sacrament. Emotion: I watched three years of The Split in four days. Cried my eyes out. In awe of acting and a script this good. Sometimes you just have to take a vacation from yourself and let other people do life for you. On Hulu, BBC possibly the best relationship drama I have seen.
I’ve written a wild-mind sort of blog post in wh I’ve written a wild-mind sort of blog post in which I let the story of place, museums, witness and culture unfold as it wishes. It’s an old-style post before I had “newsletter consciousness.” (Sigh….when you send out a post with one image and a show announcement and maybe five more words and someone writes, “perfect length to view on my phone” you may be tempted to perform more of the same and forget the original muse, born long before success was judged by how well thoughts fit within 2x5” square inches. A few excerpts here and first link in bio to read the entirety. Witness and elegy is where I seem to live. Painting is acrylic ink on panel, a piece I have yet to resolve but like to see into for the next step.
If you are born on 9.11 take back this day. It’s If you are born on 9.11 take back this day. It’s still yours! Yesterday I started early and went to an island in the middle of the blue sea to be in beauty and celebrate life. As we walked the beach we met a young boy also born on 9.11. His parents had brought him to Vashon for the same reason, and he had found a perfect moon shell for his own birthday present sent from the sea. It was such a lovely moment, to remember the world is young no matter how old we are.
Taking the last golden days of summer for study. T Taking the last golden days of summer for study. The Volunteer Park museum has an exhibit showing the influence of the Edo arts in Japan on Toulouse-Lautrec and I went to see it last weekend. As you can see from these images, I seem to have no interest in Lautrec— True! But these details of woodcuts and paintings on silk fill me with a quiet rapture.
Walking Meditation Walking Meditation
RIP Brian McBride, The Stars of the Lid RIP Brian McBride, The Stars of the Lid

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