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You are here: Home / Archives for Cathy Sarkowsky

Last Weekend of Vashon Island Visual Artist Studio Tour (VIVA!)

May 11, 2018 by Iskra 1 Comment

Vashon garden idyll VIVA tour

This is the last weekend to visit Cathy Sarkowsky and me to see our work on the Vashon Island Artist Studio Tour (VIVA!). Last weekend was amazing. I met many new art lovers and had a rare opportunity to share my work with people directly and talk (in person, what a concept!). Cathy Sarkowsky’s garden is a dream and is rewiring my brain for green. Her brilliantly colored paintings, some made with her own ground pigments, are flying off the walls, so don’t miss this chance to visit her work and her beautifully designed studio. It will inspire you in every way.

The satellite studio where I am set up opens to the garden. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Artist Studio Visits, Iskra Shows, Upcoming and Past, Print Sale, Recent Posts Tagged With: Cathy Sarkowsky, Iskra Art Shows, Iskra Studio Sale, Vashon Artist Studio Tour, VIVA

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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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
Sunday Morning Meditation: River and woods, stone Sunday Morning Meditation: River and woods, stone and light.

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