Johnny Karwan

I paint mainly on raw birch panels, boxes and cut out shapes of birch plywood. The texture and grain of the wood that shows through the transparent layers of paint, makes its own statement in a way, as the fingerprint of its natural origins that persist beyond the transformation from tree to painted surface. My work is about the moments in life where history, nature and observation meet curiosity, whimsy and imagination. It answers the questions of ‘where have I been, what have I seen, and what do I take with me to where I go next?’ Discarded tools, implements and artifacts of industrial man, long past their days of usefulness, are enhanced and given a new context in the midst of birds and flowering vines. It’s a wink at nature and a nod to the past as I move to the future. It’s history. It’s memory. It’s inspiration in the present and it feeds my soul.