We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Elisa Johns. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Elisa below.
Elisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
The first painting I sold was so essential to launching my art career. The year I graduated from my MFA program coincided with a show called Supersonic that included all graduating MFA students in Southern California. It was an incredible opportunity and I was very fortunate that the curator picked a large 8×10 ft painting. The show received a lot of press and my painting happened to catch the eye of a major Los Angeles collector. The curator put me in contact with her. I attempted to negotiate a price but the collector ultimately decided what my painting worth. Being in her collection was the most valuable part of the transaction. I rented a truck and delivered the painting myself. When I arrived, she gave me a tour of her collection which included a Nancy Rubins Airplane Parts sculpture in the backyard and two incredible galleries with several amazing Cecily Brown and Peter Doig paintings. The entire experience was a very surreal introduction the the Los Angeles art world. That sale jump started my career. Within the year I had been included in several important group shows and had my first solo show.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My work draws inspiration from the beauty and severity of the Western landscape. My current paintings focus on Kings Canyon in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where I spend my summers backpacking. I see a connection between the immediacy of experiencing a painting and the immediacy of experiencing nature through the solitude and physicality of backpacking, and I seek to interpret the experience rather than attempt to reproduce exact imagery. I often interweave historical and mythological narratives into the landscapes. The scale of these works references the physicality and monumentality of the places I depict perhaps inciting a memory of the sense of moving one’s body through nature.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I see painting as a way of exploring the moment when my mind makes meaning out of a previous experience. Then a viewer gets to interact with that work and their experience in the world become a part of that meaning. I like the idea that my work is connected to a larger history of landscape and mythology. I also hope that there is enough openness and abstraction in the work that it can be experienced as both a thing and a representation. The painting is simultaneously occurring on the canvas and in the mind of the viewer. Meaning is made from brushstrokes.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
The biggest pivot in my career occurred following the birth of my daughter. Having a child encouraged me to reexamine how I spent time at the studio. I wanted to be more productive with less available time. I no longer had the ability to stay late into the night at the studio if I was inspired and I also didn’t want to leave the studio early if I wasn’t feeling motivated. Suddenly, time and efficiency became much more meaningful. I started leaving tasks that were simple starting points such as painting in a background or sketching in some flowers as things to begin my day. I’ve always found that if I managed to start working even on something as mundane as putting gesso on canvas, the creative energy and ideas start to flow. I started making more small works on paper and keeping a sketch book. I also really love hand-written to-do lists. Of course, the most obvious pivot is to keep my phone away from my work area. I love Focus Mode. These shifts in the way I use my time in the studio have intensified my creative process. Sketching and drawing has shifted the direction of my work. And playing with size and scale has brought an openness to my paintings. The pivot to motherhood has reinvigorated my creativity in the studio.
Contact Info:
- Website: Elisajohns.com
- Instagram: @elisajohns