Apr 2, 2019
A
native of Los Angeles, Kat Johnson says her first trips to the
desert in the 1970's were inspired by the desert sounds of The
Eagles. She wouldn't come back again until six years ago at the
suggestion of a then boyfriend. Kat wasn't really excited
about a trip to the desert, but the vacation rental close to the
park sealed the deal - Kat wanted to continue to commune with the
wildlife, particularly the desert cottontails who made
their presence known each morning of her stay. And seriously, if
you've seen them, who can resist?
From
that moment on, Kat was on a mission to find a place in the
Hi-Desert and live Los Angeles behind. The process took about three
years of weekend trips and later, weekday visits to tour homes that
had recently been put on the market.
In this episode, Kat
talks about her assemblage art pieces and her
process of locating anchor pieces for them both before and after
eBay, as well as her fascination with 'lucky'. Some of those
objects are also tattoos and Kat was hard-pressed to point out any
favorites - hard to do when you have over 25 of them.
She
also talks about the responsibilities of being a Gallery Director,
a role she stepped into the last two years at Gallery 62 in Joshua
Tree. Having run creative departments for large ad agencies, Kat
loved the idea of being in charge and bringing projects to fruition
again. Now that her two year run is almost up, she's amping up her
own art work and putting some shows on her calendar for 2020. In
the meantime, she's preparing for the May 2019 show at Gallery 62
which will feature student art, along with a silent auction
fundraiser for the Gallery 62 Art Student Scholarships to be
presented to select Morongo Basin student artists pursuing a career
in art after high school.
Rather
than feeling like she's in a line at Disneyland, given the
popularity and over use of some of the parks more accessible
trails, Kat prefers 'off trail' hikes, allowing her to really be
one and at be peace with nature.