Another view, another inspiration

We find our inspiration in many ways. Eric Johnson provides us with one of his transformations that take us -- if we let ourselves perceive beyond the ordinary trappings of word categories -- into a novel view of the 'ordinary' object we thought we first saw.

Eric Johnson / The Original

Eric Johnson / An Inspired By Way of Perceiving the Object

Joe Nalven:  Playing with the title of the upcoming PAG show, Inspired By, can you tell us what takes you from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary in your art?

Eric Johnson:  Lately I've been off on a tangent where I take a picture strictly for the shapes and lines, and then give it new life as a colorful offspring of sorts. For the surface texture and color, I was inspired by New Yorker Magazine covers, and for the transformation part, I was thinking about "transformers," and the way they transform from a collection of parts into a new coherent thing.

The original picture was taken in my sisters backyard. They have a large yard and stuff has accumulated out there. I'm intrigued by the idea that stuff they vow to clean up some day is providing me with raw material for making abstract pictures.