Extended Moment
Ink allows a direct, not wholly controlled, and relatively indelible way of painting. It limits color concerns, and allows for concentration on structure and mark making. In these works, Johnston invites the viewer to participate in his experience of cultural observation–settings that are socio-political, backdrops that resonate personal experience. Utilizing panoramic fields of vision as means to experience an environment, these paintings reflect a record of time both intimate and frozen; the images are fractured, incomplete, containing misrepresentations, and figures out of proportion. As ink is subject to water and paper, any cultural experience, though replete with external facts and internal intuitions, is just beyond our control and understanding, which exists within a state of flow.