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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 Spring Shows 2018

March 20, 2018 by Iskra 2 Comments

“The Spool,” archival pigment print, 22×30 and 14×20

A big thank you to everyone who came out to the opening of Industrial Pastorale at Perry and Carlson! It was a wonderful gathering of friends and family from throughout the Salish Sound. I had long conversations with many new art appreciators, some of whom I knew only by Instagram avatar. It is a lovely surprise to see the internet unfold into real life. A big thank you too to those who went home with various prints like the one above, from the Wild Color series inspired by the Anacortes Shipyard. Most of the work is collected now in a print gallery on my site, so if you cannot make it to Mt. Vernon take a look here. The show continues through April 1, Hours: Wed-Sat 11-6, Sun 12-4 and by appointment. 504 S. First Street, Mt. Vernon, WA.

To recuperate I went to the studio the next morning and cleaned out my sink. A long pause that was. Lots of scrubbing. Absolutely nothing will get stains out of a cheap plastic utility tub. I could really drag this task out. Baking soda, bleach, five kinds of scrubbies, soya solvent, the Gypsy Kings. Very helpful, I recommend doing this at least once a year.

It is going to be a very busy spring, with four shows between now and the middle of May. I hope you can stop by whatever fits your mood. Each event is an entirely different kind of scene, and I am excited to broaden my world to new communities in the Seattle and East Side.

Ryan James Fine Arts 3rd Biennial Exhibition with 50 Selected Artists

Opening April 12 5-10 PM

11905 124th Ave. NE, Kirkland 98034

Show runs from April 1 – May 31st

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Layered, Presented by the Sammamish Arts Commission

Sammamish City Hall Commons Gallery

April 23 – July 20, 2018

Artist Reception Thursday, May 24th from 6-8:00 pm

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Seattle Artist League at Galvanize 1 Night Only!

April 5th 5-8 PM

111 S. Jackson

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Vashon Studio Tour (Now called VIVA)

First Two Weeks of May, details to come

Although I have loved being in the landlocked meadowscapes of the Skagit Valley, my work for the summer show at Taste will return to the water. Think the light in August, think of that pink haze of condensed heat and rose petals, how the sun shines diffuse like thistle fluff and in the distance the sound of the ships turns the clouds blue in the bay. There may be some pink, some yellow too, definitely some very hot color. Here is a glimpse.

Tethered waterscape print by Iskra — Tethered 1, © Iskra Johnson

You Are Invited to the Opening of “Industrial Pastorale” at Perry & Carlson

February 15, 2018 by Iskra Leave a Comment

“Windscape,” © Iskra Johnson 2017, 22 x 33 limited edition pigment print

I hope to see you at Industrial Pastorale at Perry & Carlson this coming March 3rd! The early opening hour is timed to encourage people to come up to the Skagit Valley for the day, take in the landscape and visit Edison’s thriving art scene or La Conner as well.

This show explores the liminal edge between urban and rural landscape. The prints merge recent landscape photography from the Skagit Valley with urban surface to create visual narratives of rural archetype, contemplation and place. Through blends of painting, traditional printmaking and photographic techniques the work pushes digital printmaking into new territory, with images that live beyond category, as mysterious “works on paper.” The complete artist statement for this work can be read here.

There will be over 20 new limited edition prints in different sizes, ranging from 22 x 33 to 15 x 15 inches, framed and unframed. Once the show has opened I will post a complete gallery here of all the work in the series. Meanwhile, here is a glimpse of one of my favorites, inspired by the pony farm memories of my childhood.

Le Rêve du Cheval (The Horse’s Dream)

The horse dreamed in black and white
just the way they told him to
but he could not stay away
from the red barn.

One night he drank it.

From then on his dreams were in color
the way he always knew
they were supposed to be.

Industrial Strength at SAM Gallery, with Iskra Johnson, Kate Protage, and Kellie Talbot

August 28, 2017 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Ash Grove in Blue, by Iskra Johnson, SAM Gallery — Ash Grove in Blue, 40 x 42 in., archival pigment print, © Iskra Johnson

Please save the date for the opening reception of Industrial Strength on second Thursday at SAM Gallery, September 14 from 6-7:30 PM. This show presents the work of painters Kellie Talbot, Kate Protage and myself, exploring our three very different interpretations of the industrial landscape.

Late last year when SAM Gallery suggested I propose a show the idea for “Industrial Strength” quickly surfaced. I have long been fascinated by the dramatic and heroic scale of industrial infrastructure, whether it involves trainyards, cement plants and construction sites, or the stubborn and implacable charm of the slightly less heroic dumpster. The urban landscape is papered with the beauty of accidental surface, composed of error overlayered with more error, moments of intention and endless revision. This pentimento is, in any language, a story. I love the challenge of marrying surface and atmosphere with structure, and here in the northwest we have it all: more cranes than any other city in the USA and more Northwest Mystic Cloud Cover™, not to mention two epic mountain ranges, the Duwamish River, a lake, a bay and the vast expanse of Puget Sound. Against this backdrop the machinery of industry has never looked so good. [Read more…]

Industrial Silence | (And Save the Date!) #MakeAmericaCreateAgain at CoCA

March 20, 2017 by Iskra Leave a Comment

Industrial Light Photograph by Iskra Johnson — Industrial Silence, © Iskra Johnson

Industrial silence is a three part harmony of dripping rust, heavy metal and the slanting light of late afternoon. If you listen carefully you can hear walls corrugating and wire mapping a path through the milky green of ancient skylights. In the distance, there is the hum of large trucks idling, and close up the interrogating roar of generators programmed to shock a tourist out of reverie. There is always the cantor and the choir of crows and gulls, one shrieking, one mewling, and sometimes thin coils of rubber poised like snakes. Most of the written words are warnings. Wear your steel toe boots, don’t touch, don’t trespass, turn this crank to the left and then up, do not drink what is in this barrel, although I always hope somewhere in the sans serif commands I will find an anthemic “raise high the roofbeam carpenters!”

Every silence is different, but each one reminds me of the other, so as I walk through train yards and factories on Sundays when everyone is gone I also think of Berlin, [Read more…]

Save the Date! Vashon Island Artist Studio Tour May 2018

Iskra Spring Shows 2018

You Are Invited to the Opening of “Industrial Pastorale” at Perry & Carlson

Industrial Strength at SAM Gallery, with Iskra Johnson, Kate Protage, and Kellie Talbot

Industrial Silence | (And Save the Date!) #MakeAmericaCreateAgain at CoCA

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