ARTIST'S BLOG
January 2012
by Jeff Johnson on 01/26/12
January
A new year is here and for me it comes with a new life in sunny California. The new art lab in Venice is awesome. It's fucking perfect actually. There's a huge door I can open to the back alley, which is convenient for ventilation when I'm dealing with toxic paints or when I need to flick a cigarette butt somewhere. And it never really gets cold in California so I can work half naked and get paint all over me. No more ruined clothes. Sort of a hidden bonus.
After my successful trek to Japan last year to do paintings with Horiyoshi III and other noteworthy artists, I decided to keep the odyssey going. Who knows where I'll end up this year . The plans to finish up the collaborative paintings have been a team effort, with ideas coming in from all sides. Graffiti in east LA with the vatos from Old # 13. Big dragons with Matt Reed from Tigerlily in Portland. Some iconography out of Mexico City. Stained glass with some new friends in Santa Fe. This time I might even try not to get hurt.
Art can fuck you up sometimes. Traveling around last year was more than a little taxing on both me and the film crew I was working with. I swear to God I saw our camera person Jessica Gallant fall asleep standing up, while still filming, on several occasions. I really thought she was going to die a few times. I was impressed at the insane bravado of Angela Savidge, who joined me in everything from sniffing glue with Tokyo gangsters to late night roaming in a dozen other cities in my constant effort to find the shunned miracle side of every metropolis we visited. Everyone else who went with me on those twilight explorations did so because they were ordered to or they were genuinely concerned that I wouldn't make it back. There is always something never mentioned in the guidebooks. You can read about it in my new book, "Great Pink Skeleton, A Walk Through the World's Underbelly", due out sometime late next year.
I found some time last weekend to check out the Venice tattoo scene. I'm happy to report that there are good artists working here. But if you're ever in LA and feeling brave, you gotta go check out the dudes at Old No.13. Buy some of that Tequila Pee Wee is pimping. I gather its good stuff. I tried some last year and I don't even remember climbing that palm tree.
Our blog section will be expanding at the end of the month, so tune in for some raw scatalogical commentary from our ever growing collective of artists.
Peace!
Jeff Johnson
