Iskra Johnson

Digital Artist

Seattle, Washington

Iskra’s art practice is rooted in the traditions of contemplative art, influenced greatly by her years as a student of Asian calligraphy and her design career as a calligrapher and letter form artist. She uses many different media, but in all of them she is very attentive to the language of mark-making and surface. As principal of Iskra Design, she worked with the alphabet for many years, providing custom letterform solutions for book covers, logotypes, and package branding. In the first decade of her career she immersed herself in Asian calligraphy, haiga, T’ai Chi and sumie painting, studying with Lucy Liu, John Leong, and Sensei Ishii among other teachers. After this period of Eastern influence she went to the University of Washington, completing a degree in painting with a secondary focus on printmaking (BFA). She draws inspiration from the interplay between the contemplative practices of Asian art and a perhaps more Western need for invention and uncharted chaos.