Biography in weird third person: Brian Johnson is an artist/printmaker somewhere in a suburban locale of Austin, TX. Armed with only a BFA from the University of South Dakota, an a MFA from the University of Texas at Austin and nerves of steel, he went on to teach art at Texas State University and Austin Community College. Brian also works in the trenches of non-academic life as an artistic/technical consultant and occasional Master Printer for Coronado Studio in Austin, TX. Interested in seeing my resume? How I make prints : I work primarily in relief (on linoleum, wood, & plastic engraving), serigraphy ( or screen printing) and combinations of those processes. My work has always been very collage-like coming from a variety of visual sources. Taking photos, collecting images and never knowing how I'm going to use them is an everyday habit. For my relief prints I've been using the computer to assemble photographs and appropriated images together into acromatic compositions; the image is transferred to the plate and the process of cutting the relief block further transforms the image. For my screenprint/relief print images, I may start with a kernel of an idea and then develop a B&W linear relief; the block is then printed, scanned and combined with other images that expand on and add visual and conceptual layers to the idea. Other times I’ll develop an image by responding directly to the images I've collected and photographed. In this way, unexpected image combinations start to suggest the content that is developed. In both cases, I'm using the computer as I would a sketchbook, going through several variations until I reach a satisfying visual solution.
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