Red Knot after Audubon / Red Knot Ghost
Red Knot after Audubon / Red Knot Ghost (2021, watercolor with graphite pencil and collage on paper) is one in a series of diptychs that were inspired partially by Robert Motherwell's eulogy paintings, and by reproductions in a “mini elephant folio” of J.J. Audubon's paintings of the birds of North America, and by the landscapes and backgrounds in those works, which were largely painted by Lucy Audubon. The diptychs were meditations on loss, the fragility of life, and remembering.
The spacing of the two sections is meant to allow viewing one half of the painting directly while seeing the accompanying half indirectly (and perhaps subconsciously), with a kind of “averted vision.” Averted vision, as used by astronomers and watchers of the night sky, involves training the eye to focus slightly to the side of what one is actually looking toward, and uses the outer areas of the retina, which are more sensitive to faint light, to see detail that is blurred or less distinct inside the retina's center. Another way to view the diptych is as separate layers of the same subject that try to isolate and reveal individual elements of complex emotions.
Berkeley-based artist David Johnson began formal studies in drawing, painting, printmaking and illustration at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and continued at CSU-Fullerton before moving to Albany, California. Johnson frequently mixes watercolor, drawing, and collaged elements, and explores visual illusions and ambiguities. David Johnson’s artwork has been included in many group exhibits in California since the mid-1970s. More recently, Johnson has collaborated with Oakland painter/stencil artist Patrick Cant on a large painting of an inmate firefighting crew, which was exhibited at the Roll Up Project in Oakland in November, 2024.
See more of David's work in 12.4 and 8.2 and 8.2 and in 7.1 and 7.1 again and in 6.4 and 6.4 again