As an artist, I am fascinated with the relationship between creator and creation.
Assemblage Series by David Edward Johnson
Frankenstein.
The name alone conjures a lightning storm of images. From corpses, unholy and unearthed, to gothic laboratories, alive with galvanic impulse, to personal loss, longing, and anger…
Shelley’s 1818 masterwork is locked in our collective unconscious like a fever dream.
Since childhood, I have been in love with its silent shudders and moss-covered 19th century tableaus. As an adult, I am even more fascinated with the broader contexts of its text.
As an outsider and iconoclast in so many ways in my personal life, I find the creature’s hope, alienation, frustration, and need both familiar and heartbreaking. As an artist, I am fascinated with the relationship between creator and creation.
What is the creator’s responsibility for what he or she makes?
And what life does the creation have once released to the world?
As a Father, the novel makes me question my notions of expectation, love, and freedom.
And so damn much more.
As a part of an artist’s residency this fall, I had the opportunity to explore the novel through a series of illustrations. The project was an amazing way to form connections to this incredible, human story.
I’m so pleased to be able to share samples of that work here with you at Cream Scene Carnival.
So, join me… Raise a glass to Mary Shelley and all of her hideously beautiful creations.
May they haunt our dreams forever!
About the Artist
David Edward Johnson is most interested in exploring belief systems, the birth and death of the American Dream, the nature and validity of desire, as well as identity and loss on a personal level. Visually, Johnson’s work lies at the intersection of the organic, the geometric, the iconic, the abstract, and the found. All of that takes shape into mostly large-scale assemblage pieces that hover in between mediums. Johnson’s body of work can be encapsulated in three words :: abstraction, definition and deconstruction. The artist’s works have appeared in juried art shows across the US, in select galleries, have been shown at The Other Art Fair, has been featured on the album art for multi-platinum-selling musical artist Andy Grammer, was chosen from over 100,000 artists to be featured in the Saatchi Art catalog and was selected for inclusion in the London Art Biennale.
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