Featured Artist Victoria Johnson

Artist Victoria Johnson discovered a new creative passion using a digital medium. Enjoy her portfolio and story, and visit her website to learn more.

 

 

In 2018 two things happened. First, I was stuck in a bit of a rut with my graphic design career. Second, a dear friend gifted me a digital sketchpad and pen.

 

 

As I experimented with my new toys, it sparked a long-forgotten desire—to exercise creativity without borders, without purpose and without the client vetting process. Simply put, to create art for no other sake than its own.

 

 

I was an analog artist in a former life. I enjoyed buying supplies, mixing paints and sketching on fine paper. This was before I earned a degree in Commercial Art and Design and chose a career as a computer creative.

 

 

As software and hard deadlines became the theme of my life, art for pleasure fell by the wayside. Then I received the sketchpad and pen. The “Sketchie Beast” was unleashed with a ferocity that surprised even me.

 

 

In the three years since receiving those digital gifts, I’ve created almost three hundred pieces of art.

 

 

I find inspiration anywhere and everywhere; all I have to do is walk out the door. Sometimes, I don’t even have to go that far. I come from a family of talented artists and musicians—creativity is bred in the bones. Since the day my second grade teacher entered one of my class paintings in a statewide competition, I was considered by others, and viewed myself, as an artist.

 

 

As a commercial illustrator it wasn’t difficult to transition into the role of digital fine artist. I spent many hours laboring over my “Sketchpad Sessions” like one possessed, honing and refining my skill.

 

 

Almost a year to the day of receiving the gifted pen and pad, I came across an open call for a juried art exhibition in Laguna Beach, California. I submitted three of my newly minted creations (with admittedly low expectations). To my pleasant surprise, I was accepted into a company of very fine artists.

 

 

It was then that I came upon the proverbial fork in the road—graphic design, a path well trod, or fine art with all its inherent uncertainties. Which should be my North Star in this second act of my creative journey?

 

 

To quote, with creative license, the words of a Robert Frost poem, “I am choosing the road less traveled by. And hoping it makes all the difference.”

 

Artist Victoria Johnson invites you to follow her on Instagram and Facebook.

 

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