cj www.​col​in​john​sonil​lus​tra​tion.com

Do you con­sider your­self to have a defined style?

Styles plural may be a better way of describ­ing what I do these days. I think that I tend to com­bine a number of dif­fer­ent styles which hope­fully rep­re­sent my work well. I don’t think that my “style” is as clearly defined as other artists that I know but as long as the work is con­sis­tently strong and pro­gres­sive then I’m sat­is­fied. This may be a better ques­tion for the view­ers of my work than for myself as the artist.

Your gallery stuff is amaz­ing! How much does it cost?

Thanks! Well, pric­ing for gallery work depends largely on pop­u­lar­ity of the artist and the size of the pieces being sold. I don’t know about my pop­u­lar­ity factor but my work tends to be pretty small so the prices are fairly afford­able start­ing at around $200 – $250 for small pieces. How­ever, I’m work­ing on some much larger pieces for some upcom­ing shows which will prob­a­bly be in the $3000 – $5000 price range.

Apart from illus­tra­tion what other things are you into?

Squash, knit­ting, taxi­dermy, vol­ley­ball, voodoo, pilot­ing pon­toons, pla­cat­ing squir­rels, carv­ing totem poles, attend­ing filibusters…

Kid­ding. Prob­a­bly stuff that most people enjoy: movies, music, read­ing, col­lect­ing toys, hang­ing out with my dog, fight­ing ninjas…

Who are your favorite artists/illustrators alive today?

Basi­cally a lot of the artists that I’m in reg­u­lar con­tact with on a weekly basis and who I’ve shown with recently. Some of whom include: Dan May, Robert Hard­grave, Jeremy Pruitt, Aaron Nather, Chris Ryniak, Mike Bur­nett, Jere­miah Ketner, Ryan Bubnis, Martin Ontiveros, Linzie Hunter, and Heiko Muller… to name a few.

I’ve noticed Robert Hardgrave’s acquired one of your hyper col­lages recently – Do you col­lect Art? Would you buy a piece of Robert’s work?

Yes, I do col­lect art and I would and will be buying a piece of Robert’s art in the future. Cur­rently I’m wait­ing on a trade piece from Robert (hint, hint…) and work­ing out trades w/ a number of other artists. I cur­rently own pieces by Charles Glaub­itz, Jere­miah Ketner, Gina Triplett, Matthew Cur­tius, Dan May, Charles Ander­son Design, Buff Mon­ster, Foi Jimenez Jurado, Nathan Ota, Jeremy Fish, Jeff Soto, Bren­dan Daniels­son, Jaime Zol­lars, Apak, Martin Ontiveros, Tim Biskup, Craig LaRo­tonda, Doug Boehm, Mike Bur­nett, Rik Catlow, and Susan Ghahremani… to name a few.

How much of your work is done with the aid of a computer?

I create all of my work by hand but I usu­ally scan it into Pho­to­shop and clean it up and enhance colors if nec­es­sary. Most of my illus­tra­tion work these days is sent to the client for print pur­poses as a 300dpi jpeg unless the art direc­tor requests a higher dpi. That aspect of the job makes my life so much easier today in con­trast to when I first started out as an illus­tra­tor in 1994 and I was send­ing the orig­i­nal pieces to the client via FedEx for print purposes.

Which gal­leries have you shown at and which gal­leries would you like to show at?

I’ve shown at too many gal­leries to name here (or to remem­ber off the top of my head!) but I’ve recently been a part of shows at DvA Gallery in Chicago, BLVD Gallery in Seat­tle, and the new Lim­ited Addic­tion Gallery in Denver. Ulti­mately, I’d love to be rep­re­sented by a reli­able gallery in both NYC and L.A. but I’m guess­ing that would be the wish of many artists in this day and age.

Are you involved in any col­lab­o­ra­tive projects at the moment and is there anyone you would like to work with?

Yes, I’m work­ing on a number of col­lab­o­ra­tive pieces with Dan May. We’ve already com­pleted a number of pieces for dif­fer­ent shows, we’ve got a few going on cur­rently, and we’re dis­cussing a few more. Ulti­mately, we’d love to find some­one who might be will­ing to pub­lish a book of our col­lected col­lab­o­ra­tive works (hint, hint…).

There are also a few adver­tis­ing and design firms that I’d love to work with on inter­est­ing projects. And if you happen to be one those cool firms and are read­ing this inter­view give me a call!!!

What’s next in the pipeline for Colin Johnson?

I have upcom­ing gallery shows in May at BLVD Gallery in Seat­tle and at the inau­gural group show for Windup Gallery in Mesa, Ari­zona. And then in June I’ll be a part of the Art Dorks Col­lec­tive Group Show in Los Ange­les, Cal­i­for­nia at Think­space Gallery. I also have some illus­tra­tion work coming out in the upcom­ing June issue of Har­vard Busi­ness Review.

Art or Illustration?

Well, if you’re asking me whether I choose fine art or illus­tra­tion I would say that I’m some­what torn between the two at the moment. I enjoy both but it’s the equiv­a­lent of having two careers.

Bangers or Mash?

Bangers? You mean like “gang bangers?” No. I know. You mean those British sausage thin­gies right? I gotta go with the mash!!!

You can see more of Colin Johnson’s work at
www.​col​in​john​sonil​lus​tra​tion.com

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Tags: Aaron Nather, Arizona, BLVD Gallery, Brendan Danielsson, Buff Monster, California, Charles Anderson, Charles Glaubitz, Chicago, Chris Ryniak, Colin Johnson, Craig LaRotonda, Dan May, Denver, DOUG BOEHM, DvA Gallery, FedEx, Gina Triplett, Harvard, Heiko Muller, Interviews, Jaime Zollars, Jeff Soto, Jeremiah Ketner, Jeremy Fish, Jeremy Pruitt, jpeg, Limited Addiction Gallery, Linzie Hunter, Los Angeles, Martin Ontiveros, Matthew Curtius, Mesa, Mike Burnett, Nathan Ota, Rik Catlow, Robert Hardgrave, Ryan Bubnis, Seattle, Squash, Susan Ghahremani, Thinkspace Gallery, Tim Biskup, USD, volleyball, Windup Gallery, www.colinjohnsonillustration.com