Ken Johnson
I have an interest in the surfaces of things, both natural and artificial, and in their construction: what we can see both with the naked eye and also assisted with various enhanced views through images produced by cameras or scanners, or images available on the internet. Examples of this would include fabric weaving patterns, the delicate veins of leaves, the repeated intersections of a wicker chair seat, the isobars of a weather map, the tiling found in certain cultures, and the myriad number of knots and tangles available to us daily.
I develop working sketches on graph paper of the patterns that intrigue me, simple one-offs which limn the idea of the surface. In our minds we may sense some sort of logical, symmetrical perfection of pattern. However, what actually exists is limited by its being a part of our sooty, lumpy world. I then use the sketch as a road map for the final painting, reproducing the grid of the graph paper in a hand drawn version, upon which I paint in the occupied squares of the sketch. The resulting painting is then a reproduction of a sketch of an image, imperfect in its logic, skewed in its harmony, and obviously hand constructed, square by square.
