ISKRA JOHNSON

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I have always seen the world through the eyes of a printmaker. I love the sense of a line that is bitten and etched, of subtle trace effects of surface and of the feel of paper. My current work blends high resolution digital photography and painted surface to create a new kind of contemporary image.  The inspiration begins with journeys into landscape, seeking to capture with my camera a sense of place and fleeting moments of transition.

Back in the studio I use imaging software to deconstruct the photographs into layers of texture and color, and digitally layer them with hand painted surfaces. The process is improvisational, and I rarely know what the end result will be. I work as a monoprint artist would, looking for the magic of translucence that comes as one color layers over another or a plate slips out of place on the press. Although I began as a traditional printmaker, after being exposed to toxic solvents I can no longer work with the inks and solvents that I used to. Over more than a decade of experimentation I have developed proprietary methods that blend the aesthetics of etching, lithography, painting and silkscreen with the infinite possibilities of photography. 

All my prints are produced as either limited editions or monoprints and are printed on the highest quality rag paper with archival inks rated to last between 150-200 years. They are not “reproductions of paintings,” but are print artworks in and of themselves.