Aja Johnson is an artist and designer living and working in Boston, MA. In her studio practice, she engages with a variety of materials and media to explore the missed connections between childhood and adulthood. The works are colorfully chaotic and overwhelming explorations of playfulness.
Born and raised in the Boston area, Aja has lived in New York and Mexico. She received her BFA in Art and Design Education with a Concentration in Fine Arts from Pratt Institute in 2002.
Prints and goods available at Society6
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work explores vulnerability, anxiety, and dissatisfaction through abstraction. Over the past few years, my work has manifested as a process-driven exploration into my personal experience of motherhood. As a single parent to a child with autism, I have had to change my preconceived ideas of what motherhood should be and look like, as well as manage my expectations of the rewards normally associated with raising children. My paintings function as a source of play for me, an important developmental process of childhood that I have had to miss out on with my own child. I "play dress up" with all aspects of the painting process. I dig and excavate, like in a sandbox. I imagine far off worlds out of paint blobs and hand drawn patterns. I build up each layer and then carefully peel them away, allowing all that came before to be revealed in all it's messy glory.
-
-
Share