Artist Emma Johnson takes inspiration from her surrounds. 32924_02
By Casey Neill
BELGRAVE’S Emma Johnson is looking to the hills for inspiration.
The 24-year-old will take over Burrinja’s Jarmbi Gallery from 11 July to 4 August with an evolving collage designed to engage the community.
Ms Johnson will be in the gallery from 10am to 4pm daily and encouraged people to share with her words, objects and photos.
“I love getting people involved and I know that I’ve got this infectious quality when it comes to art,” she said.
The concept stemmed from a previous, spontaneous project.
“I just started drawing all over my walls at uni and people really got involved with it,” she said.
“It was so much fun, and I love the tangents that people can take you on.”
Visitors can also show off their artistic flair on her Awesome Laughing Chalkboard.
Ms Johnson will regularly photograph the unusual canvas to create a display around the giant 3-D face.
She has dubbed the exhibition Another Dead Possum, after discovering two of the deceased marsupials in a drain outside her Burrinja basement studio in the space of a week.
Ms Johnson has held only a ‘little solo show’ previously.
“This is like my first big, professionalism kind of step,” she said.
“It’s so perfect. It is my dream come true.”
Ms Johnson was conceived at the Emerald backpackers in 1984.
She lived in Wollongong with her Australian mother and British father until the family moved to Suffolk, England in 1992.
Ms Johnson returned to her homeland last year and was drawn to the hills.
“When I came to Burrinja I really loved the community feel to the place, and that’s something that I really wanted to get into my work,” she said.
Ms Johnson’s artwork ranges from performance to sculpture, painting and drawing.
“I’ve always been colouring in and gluing and sticking things together,” she said.
Her plans to become an architect fell through when she failed maths.
“But I was really good at art and I just loved it and wanted to keep going with it,” she said.
Ms Johnson completed a degree in Fine Art Sculpture at London’s Wimbledon College of Art in 2007.
She works as a cleaner at St Thomas More’s Primary School in Belgrave.
“I love that place,” she said.
“It’s like wall to wall, floor to ceiling decorations made by kids. It’s just endlessly fascinating.”
Ms Johnson will hold an exhibition closing party from 7pm on Friday 31 July and will then sell the collage in fragments.
“I’m really pumped,” she said.
Burrinja Gallery is located at 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey. Readers can check out more of Ms Johnson’s work at www.emmajohnson.net. They can contact her by sending an email to emmajohnson_28@hotmail.com
