Brad Johnston Smash and Grab Gouache on paper mounted on panel 18 x 24 inches BJO 016-G

I collect myths, story, and folklore, both cultural and historical.  The result is a blend of imagery and story at work in my head and in my soul, creating new connections and new images while retaining the spirit of the old.

These drawings are semi-autobiographical. Symbolically they illustrate the inward gaze, and contemplation of the self. Occasionally they relate to a concrete event. How they are read is determined by the viewer’s frame of reference to the symbols and the viewer’s familiarity with different cultural and historical myths.

Only a Mystic Fox Gets Out Acrylic and colored pencil 24 x 20 inches

The inner life is a labyrinth to be navigated and these works are an indicator that contemplation of the self is possible and can be fruitful. The illustrative nature of the drawings allows the viewer to insert themselves into the narrative and the potential to create an entirely new mythology with the new figures and environments.

The ultimate intent is to symbolize individual freedom and the path to the awakening of imagination, which has been the core of all mythology since the dawn of man, and to initiate a person past thresholds into selfhood.

Wildwood Drawing 22 x 30 inches

Click here for a recent article in the Creative Loafing

Brad Johnston was raised in Connecticut, and received a BA from Taylor University in 2006. He lived and worked in Indiana until the fall of 2008, when he got married and moved to Kailua, Hawaii to teach music at an elementary school. He enrolled at SCAD-Atlanta in the fall of 2009, where he is currently working towards an MFA in printmaking.

If you are interested in a piece by Brad Johnston, please call KAI LIN ART at 404 408 4248 or e-mail info@kailinart.com

For more on the art of Brad Johnston, please visit his page by clicking here or the image below: