Toronto Artist Mark Johnson's Blog - Category View:

I want to share some of the images and words that I have accrued about our planet and the life that has transformed it’s outer skin.

The universe resides in what is referred to as deep time. Billions of years layer the foundation of our understanding of our world and of ourselves. The depth of our history, all the way from the elements we are made of on up to the faculties we have evolved, combine to understand and interpret that world. This is what fuels the synthesis which is the essential structure of understanding ourselves and the world we live in.

Light defines things which are beyond our hands reach. This definition has an immediacy it is difficult to appreciate without considering the various layers and levels which are interposed between us.

I didn’t think to take a photo of this piece until it was pretty well set, so there isn’t a real early stage photo. But it is interesting to see a couple of intermediary steps before the finished look. I didn’t try to make the colour of the stages look like the finished piece. I [...]

Some waits recur. Again and again the waiting takes place at the same location.

I remember a man describing the colours of songs. For him all songs had a unique colour arrangement – every compositon had a retina print, so to speak. I wondered if that was similar to the way conversations and concepts swim in my mind as an ever-flowing imagery – a flow that is both important [...]

Best invention – I have to go with the wrap. Using the hide of a kill to gather up the important parts you separate out to take back to your shelter was such an enormous step. Imagine the divide before that meme. The efficiency in that discovery – being able to expend only the energy [...]

11″ x 14″ Pencil We tend to live our lives unaware of the alternative spaces which are knit with our own. The world around us contains us as we contain the particulars which make up our minds and bodies. There is existence beyond and above us. Eventually, we all have to deal with this great unknown. A vantage of time [...]

This acrylic piece has been sitting on the easel for far too long. I’m including it as part of a juried submission that accepts works in progress, which means it can make it into the Blog as well. I’m betting the end result will not look too different from what I have here, but it [...]

I’m happy to be taking part in the Don Valley Art Club’s Annual Spring Show. There will be quite a range of work by the members, including my new piece Reflections II. Place Todmorden Mills, Pottery Road, Toronto Ontario Show Dates April 30, May 1, 2, 8 & 9, 2010 Opening Reception Friday, April 30, [...]

I decided I wanted to do a variation of Reflections, going with the energy and ideas that were still strong from the original. So, working on a larger scale (36″ x 24″) in acrylic, I will be trying extra-hard to make this piece a fully functional painting when hung in any orientation. I’m interested in [...]

11″ x 14″ pencil People have a reliance on and a relationship with the animals that share our world. Our bodies, our natures and the very roots of our existence are conjoined. There is a natural correspondence between this ancient interrelationship and the iconic gestalt that we consider when we think “bear”, “bird” or “fish”. [...]

The Song – 12″ x 16″ finished size in micron pens and colour pencils. This is the first stage complete before I colour it in. The show is coming up and I feel the crunch time, so I will see how quickly I get The Song complete. Hopefully there will be a final version hitting [...]

I am participating in the upcoming Toronto Art Expo. I’ll be in Booth D073 – a corner location on the perimeter a few rows away from the centre stage. Very exciting, very nerve-wracking for this neophyte, and a little rich for my blood. But it will be an amazing experience, and something to look back [...]

I think art is organizing and binding of time and material with intent. The intent is to add quality while expressing some purpose in our lives. Good art does this with aesthetic intent, craftsmanship and the imbuing of the artists pleasure into their construct. A person can be an artist in the way they load [...]