PRINTJacob Johnson
Johnson uses traditional drawing and oil painting to explore and critique popular culture and mass media
Elisa Day
Jacob Johnson, a second-year graduate student from Missouri, uses traditional drawing and oil painting to explore and critique popular culture and mass media.
November 5, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Specializing in sketches and oil paintings, Johnson prides himself in finding what makes a person interesting. “People excite me and give me ideas,” Johnson says. He often uses friends for inspiration. From six-foot paintings to smaller sketches, his work explores aspects of popular culture and mass media. Self-described as both serious and passionate, Johnson says he also likes bringing aspects from his childhood into his work. His modern rendition of Spanish painter Diego Velázquez’s “Mars, God of War” features Batman. Gods were idolized, mythical characters in older times, Johnson explains, and superheroes are a contemporary equivalent. Johnson says he hopes to make the age-old practice of art relevant in today’s world, and stresses that art is “something that shouldn’t be lost in a world of technology.”
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