Collection: Derek Johnson

A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE ARTIST

1. What do you do when you’re not making art? (Day job etc...).

Aside from my family, I spend most of my time during the school year teaching high school visual arts, I work with local arts organizations and chair a scholarship non-profit for art students, I listen to podcasts, watch documentaries and reality TV.

2. Why do you make art?

I like working with my hands, eyes, and mind together. For me, I think the impulse to make art is something close to meditation or some other activity like that. It’s an act of balancing deep concentration and focus with the letting go of self delusions and control. The things I make are kind of a record of that experience I guess.

3. What inspires you?

I am inspired by: the art that my friends make, listening to music, weird dreams, technology, nature.

4. What/who are your influences?

My major influences include in no particular order Nature, Friends, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Eugene Delacroix, El Greco, Pieter Bruegel, Hans Hofmann, Stan Lee, Bob Dylan, J.R.R. Tolkien.

5. If you could meet anyone dead or alive who would it be?

I think probably Jesus Christ. I have a lot of questions.

Read our interview with Derek Johnson in the AllArtWorks Featured Artist Series here.