Press Resease
LYGHTESOME GALLERY
Annual Exhibit of Recent Work by LINDA JOHNS
“Wings of Spring”
JUNE 2-28, 2003
The annual June exhibit of recent work by Antigonish artist Linda Johns opened on Monday, June 2 at Lyghtesome Gallery, located on the east end of Main Street in Antigonish. This year’s show entitled “Waiting for Spring” features a tight and provocative outpouring of new work: three oil pastels, twelve ink brush drawings, six acrylic paintings on paper, eight acrylic paintings on canvas, two clay sculptures and one soapstone carving all produced within the last twelve months.
As the title of the show implies, the natural world serves as the primary source of inspiration for Linda Johns’ life and work. A keen and vigilant observer , from her rural home in James River, Johns records daily both in drawing and in writing, impressions and information she gains from her interactions with the surrounding landscape, with wild creatures, with birds and animals she lives with, with plant forms, with weather, and with the seasons. From these extensive notebook chronicles, come finished ideas for paintings, drawings and sculpture and episodes to bring to her writing, including most recently a series of prose poems.
Linda Johns has devoted her artistic career to relentlessly probing what this life is about. She works and reworks images, explores the same ideas in several different mediums, always honing and polishing her technique. Any work by Johns is a strong intentional statement that conveys a universal message of distress and hope at a time of unprecedented world turmoil. “Worldwide disruption on environmental, spiritual, cultural and creative levels is our inner imbalance made visible.” Johns strives to work on both a conscious and subconscious psychological level to illustrate the complex dualistic nature of reality and human experience and the potential to transcend Both the visual and written outpourings of this multifaceted, prolific artist are unlike any other contemporary creative voice coming out of the Maritimes.
To honor the scope of Linda Johns’ vision and bring attention to some of the philosophical influences on her work, Lyghtesome Gallery is sponsoring a mini film series entitled PERCEPTIONS OF LIFE during the month of June, in conjunction with the 2003 exhibit. Four films exploring different perspectives on life and the human experience will be held on the first four Mondays in June starting at 7:00pm in B33 Nicholson Hall at St. Francis Xavier University. This series is part of the GAPACC Arts Alive series and is free of charge and open to the public. For further information call 863-8122.
The Linda Johns Exhibit runs from June 2 – 28 and will be followed in July by the annual Antigonish Area Artist exhibit.