May 2012 / Wrath of Andromeda
Tyson Johnston
Tyson Johnston, a 36 year old South Bay native, grew up in Los Gatos, CA. His musical interest since his younger days have been Punk Rock and Heavy Metal to Ice T, Ice Cube and now underground Hip Hop. Growing up Tyson began finding mischief on the regular basis. He began to experiment with graffiti and decided art was another outlet to exercise his creative thoughts. Tyson seeked as much training as possible, dabbling into art classes through his high school years and then continuing at De Anza College to avoid getting ripped off at a more expensive art schools or training institutions like Universities. In the early 90’s, Tyson stumbled upon a shop called New Skool Tattoo located in San Jose’s downtown. During his many years of employment at New Skool, Tyson was fortunate to work amongst many iconic and talented successful individuals. He mentioned that he was honored to have met Sean Barber, Henry Lewis, and work with, Mike Giant, Grime, Phil Holt and Jason Kundell. So after many years of working around so much talent, Tyson discovered more of himself and his art. He pursues art more now then ever as it helps maintain his focus in life. His work is a meditative tool allowing him to keep busy and away from the world of trouble. Back in 2009, Tyson Johnston was part of the group show at E7S called “Eaten by Wolves”. His new body of work is intense and his bold illustrations layered on top of Jackson Pollock’s type backgrounds are just a preview of what’s to come. Tyson’s current body of work incorporates alot more animals and symbolic weapons from different regions of the world. He refers to his passion for old films like Clash of the Titans. This is just one of the classics he enjoys ’til this day since it’s something he watched as a kid. “The title of the show really doesn’t have anything to do with the actual paintings ” Tyson says. “It’s just a catchy title because of the movie. However there will be some Greek mythical influences through some just to make it more fun”.
