TRAVELSTRAVELS
APRIL E. JOHNSON-Printmaker.
April Eskridge-Eatman Johnson, the third generation of her family at Ole Miss, was raised in Japan and Europe, but returned to Oxford with her family in 1963. April studied with various portrait and figurative artists in Germany and began her own commission work there. She returned to Ole Miss to complete her BFA in 1989 and her MFA in 1993. Her work has been featured in two one woman exhibitions in Mississippi, in an invitational exhibition of figurative artists of the southeast in Hampton Gallery, Kinston, N.C., and in various national and international juried exhibitions, including the Southern Graphics Traveling Exhibition for 1990-91. Her studio, Atelier47, is housed at the Johnson's farm, Apple Hill. She has 4 printing presses to work in lithography, etching, and relief printmaking and also works in pastel, oil, collage and mixed media.
As the child of an artist, she had the advantage of exploring museums, galleries, great architecture, and ruins of past civilizations in Europe and Asia. Extensive travels in the U.S., especially in the southwest and the northwest, as well as in Mexico, have fed an intense interest in early peoples of the north and south Americas and Arctic Canada. April's figurative work is populated with animals and people engaged in a dialog with the elements and of the spirit. The artist explains, "My work is fueled by the drama of nature and the history of our universe and torn by the human condition. The result is three quests, one after the haunting leavings of the past, another the screams of the visual now and the other an inquisition into the next dimension. The images are emotions made visible, alphabet made into mark and line, words into shapes and spaces with the laughter and tears flung about in inky blacks and colors both muted and vibrant."
Her art is constantly fed by the theme of man and animal, which is played out daily in the activities of the farm, Apple Hill Arabians and Chinaman Chinese Shar-Pei kennels, which co-exist with the studio, Atelier47. The animal population at the farm is a continuing source of raw material that surfaces in her work and can be readily seen in her images of dogs and horses. Another important play ground for the creative mind and the imagination is the large library that the artist maintains in her renovated dog trot style house that dates from the early 1800's. The library features volumes on the Holocaust, animals, and art, along with an eclectic collection that follows the varying twists of the artist's interest in time, space, the spirit, the human condition and the environment.
Some of the artist's work can be seen at the Law Library and is titled, "Headskins, Totems and Portents". In this collection of works the artist reflected on the early peoples of the Americas, dwelling in vast empty landscapes that were dominated by extremes of climate. The artist says, "In such landscapes the people lived very close to the soul of the earth, finding sustenance from the tiniest spec of life and guidance from any glimmer of light. We are still learning about these people and have ample reason to marvel at their lives. Their domestic animals, such as the dog, as well as animals that they hunted and lived with in nature, were central to their lives." The works include monotype and pastel portraits and figurative images of people wearing animals or their skins in brightly banded landscapes, conte' drawings of dogs caught by hooks and dragged through water and over land, and collage with mixed media of spiritual images floating over landscape elements. The artist further describes the work, " In these images, man comes through a liquid space, which like quicksilver, shifts and changes form. It's physical property, sand or snow, is driven and recalled by the elements. The colors of such an environment are all colors, amazing in their brilliance and black when all collected and mixed into a void - the abyss of time."
Atelier47
April E. Johnson
Rt. 4 Box 164
Oxford, MS 38655
(601) 234-8713
lwaej@olemiss.edu