Profile of Diane Johnson
Proprietor of Mother Earth Prints
Diane Johnson is a fine ecological artist whose roots are firmly planted in the soil of Kent.
My work is the landscape; it is about the passage of time, history,
decay, regeneration and evolution. It is organic, rural and industrial.
Inspiration for my prints began with the cave art at Lascaux and
Altamira. The fascination was not the images, but the colour that
had survived for many thousands of years. This began my quest to
learn more about how colour was made and used, before it was manufactured.
My research took me through time and history, from the Caveman
(earth’s) through the Egyptians (flower dyes) and onto the
Greeks, (chemistry).
My colours are home produced. They are from flowers, which I process
to extract their colour, then, dry to a powder, hoping to capture
some of nature’s beauty. I use chalk, charcoal, ground brick
and earth, from locally and worldwide, to instil a sense of belonging
and place. My most precious being a small amount of earth from
the Big Dig in Canterbury dating from the Saxon layer and below.
I also make Verdigris on copper pipes. The flower colours are unique;
many factors can make the hue change. Some colours react to the
elements (sunlight, darkness, and water), as if continuing their
botanical life, my prints are not finished, they are still maturing.
A major factor in my work, is an ecological / environmental awareness.
I am committed to using non-toxic print making techniques. My plates
are either cardboard or metal from skips. I make paper from “junk
mail”, my frames are reclaimed timbers and the glass is old
windows, in the hope of conserving a little of what we have for
future generations.
Diane spends every spare moment boiling, drying, crushing and is never far from her studio. Her work has made her very aware of our environment and she is committed to producing prints that are ecologically friendly. She is a tireless artist always striving towards the next piece, spending hour after hour finding ways to develop what she has learnt. There is no rest in her relentless quest to produce something she is satisfied with, and as she is unsure what that is, she will continue in her evolution like mankind itself.
The Prints
I like to
make prints that have the same history, by that I mean common elements.
If we use the big dig prints as an example. They were made from a bit
of card that I found by the fence at the site, then items that I sieved
from the earth were glued to the card and finally they were printed with
the earth from the site.
Many of the prints start off with the same plate but no two are the identical.
Although the prints are created from the earth something happens that
is to me (and others who view them) quite remarkable. Some look as if
they show views of space (the universe). It is almost that because they
have been created with the organic matter that gives us our planet and
that they are showing how our origin began.
I would just like to add that without the excellent support that I receive from the staff and other students at Canterbury Christ Church University College this would not have been possible. A BIG THANK YOU.