The Sun and Moon

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Conor

Recently I made a journey to the Rivera Nayarit in Mexico. Being my first time out of the country, I was open to the new experiences and spiritual energy of the culture. I discovered many things about myself, which came to light in a new way being on a new spot on the earth I had never seen. I saw reflections of how I do art and what my style is in the artistic culture of Mexico. I could feel a deep connection within the culture, something that had been there all the time waiting for me to find it and have everything make sense.

One day at a small art gallery I came across a shirt with the sun and moon merged together like one face. I bought the shirt because it spoke to me, embracing both male and female aspects. The idea of the complementary male and female aspects is fundamental in Huichol Indian Culture. The male side represented by the sun (Tau) and the female side represented by the moon (Mesta).

After meeting a new friend who is a local artist in the Riviera Nayarit. I was inspired to create a gift for him and my friends who let me stay with them for a month. And I decided to do my own sun and moon art with water color and markers. While creating each piece I was connecting with my friends and channeling their energies into the art, working on them simultaneously. One for a few, then I would discover inspirations for the other, switching back and forth.

This one was for my artist friend,  the imagery came out more intense.                                      I added the Mayan Solar Seal of Yellow Star for Art and Elegance

 

And the one for the friends I was visiting came out more colorful and energetic.                    I added the Mayan Solar Seal of White Mirror to reflect endlessness.

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The Birth of Biotic Nouveau

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Conor

What is Biotic Nouveau?

Biotic Nouveau is a primal form of Art Nouveau. Biotic Nouveau has much of the decorative style that Art Nouveau encompasses, yet it captures the consciousness of the Gaian spirit and the energies of non ordinary reality. This is achieved through observation and interpretation of different shapes. After the first shapes are drawn, I begin to find the hidden animals and plants within the shapes. Which is a similar process to finding faces and objects in let’s say a canyon wall within the rocks, the life force is already there we just have to use our inner vision to discover the hidden landscapes and forms. This kind of art is intuitive and channeled, I know exactly what to do yet I never know how it will come out or what kind of life force I will find. Inspirations for this art include the turn of the century Art Nouveau aesthetic, eye-popping Op Art, the chaotic splattering of Ralph Steadman and the animated shapes of Keith Haring.

The Birth of Biotic Nouveau

While in college getting my associates degree in Graphic Design I was experimenting with all sorts of styles of drawing and painting. I was always filling these sheets of paper with all sorts of random shapes, designs and patterns. I started to see the white background of a blank sheet as the negative space for these shapes, thus I would fill the whole space as if there was a landscape already on the paper. There wasn’t a lot of depth to these shapes, they were flat just floating on the surface of the paper.

Early experimental drawing

After taking a drawing and painting class, I discovered the calligraphy pen. The process of having to dip the end of the pen in the ink every time was very intriguing to me. This was how the scribes and artists created their art for centuries, there was a primal quality to doing art this way, a little more tedious but it made you concentrate more on what you were doing in the moment. Then I began experimenting with water color backgrounds, this was a good way to have color and a beginning where I could go over the shapes so the foreground and background were symbiotic, playing off each other. This style has been progressing ever since.

An early experiment with a water color test of a tree

Please visit my Gallery for more Biotic-Nouveau.

 

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Conor Johnson Art Goes Live.

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Conor

Greetings! thanks for visiting my site.

Op Art, Art Nouveau, Visionary Art and Surrealism are my main influences. Ralph Steadman, Alex Grey and Keith Haring are big inspirations to my art.  Most are water color backgrounds with pen and ink on top, like an experiment to a strange organic comic book that creates itself, similar to the process of creating a comic book, the background comes first and then the foreground figures are then places and traced over the existing background. The shapes always come first and forms and animals are found within the shapes, leaving many of the shapes up for interpretation.

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