Through her art, Alli Johnston is interested in exploring her place in, and connection with, the natural world.
The Corner Brook-based artist has taken up that exploration, which she believes helps to educate herself, and form a framework to study the world in which she is a part.
She has embraced the initiative in an entirely new, challenging but exciting way. Johnston, who primarily works in watercolour painting, has created a new series featuring 32 pieces of eco-dyed silk. Each piece incorporates dye used from wildflowers.
Johnston had been experimenting with these materials before, but it was the first time she completed an actual body of work with them.
“This project was a bit of a shift for me in terms of the materials I was using, but it’s still able to explore the same themes of my connection to nature and my place in the natural world,” she told the West Coast Wire.
The exhibition, …and still the wildflowers grew, has been on display at the Rotary Arts Centre’s Tina Dolter Gallery in Corner Brook since Jan. 7. It will remain up until Feb. 15.
The project started as a process of discovery.
Johnston explored Gros Morne National Park, becoming, she said, an “amateur botanist,” looking for the types of plants from the region that she would like to incorporate into her art.
“I went on some hikes and a canoe trip with the goal of discovering what types of flowers and ferns grow in the park,” she explained.
Since you cannot remove plants from a national park, she then looked for plant specimens outside of park boundaries to use in the dying process.
Johnston gathered fireweed, roses, ferns, blue flag, crackerberry leaves, blueberry and raspberry leaves, and countless other plants, to incorporate into the 32 pieces.
She returned to her Corner Brook studio to start the dying process.
“It was a great big experiment,” she said. “You don’t really know sometimes what you’re going to get with dying processes.”
The entire process started in July and concluded on Thanksgiving weekend. Therefore, it includes plants from both summer and fall.
Some pieces incorporate one type of plant while others feature multiple species.
Johnston says a lot of art has been generated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and that is also the case for her.
“It was a real escape to go and have the privilege to spend time in Gros Morne,” she said. “And it was also sort of a mental escape from all the stress of the world.”
…and still the wildflowers grew can be viewed between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.
The project was supported through Creative Gros Morne’s Connecting through Culture program. Eleven of the pieces will find a permanent home at Gros Morne Adventures shop in Norris Point. Johnston hopes it will allow visitors, in an unconventional way, to embrace a sense of the types of flowers that grow in Gros Morne.
“It’s using art (to access) learning and knowledge,” she said.
The remaining pieces will be available for sale at the art gallery.
Johnston recently participated in SaltWire Network’s question and answer session.
Q. What is your full name?
Allison Denise Johnston
Q. Where and when were you born?
June 1974 in Hamilton, Ont.
Q. Where do you live today?
Corner Brook, Fogo Island and Exploits Island.
Q. What’s your favourite place in the world?
Simm’s Beach on Fogo Island. It’s within a two-minute walk from my house out there and it’s just this really rugged but peaceful place. There’s a little section of the beach where there’s big beach rocks that when the waves are really crashing, they make this really awesome, roaring sound as the waves pull away. I feel happy when I’m there and peaceful.
Q. Who do you follow on social media?
I follow a lot of artists on Instagram.
Q. What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I’m afraid of spiders.
Q. What’s been your favourite year and why?
2015. I had this amazing summer where I travelled around a lot. I went home to Ontario to visit my family and then went on a trip to Ireland with my best friend, Erika. I got together with my husband that summer and we had lots of adventures together. That, plus, my first visits to Exploits Island and Fogo Island.
Q. What is the hardest thing you have ever done?
I taught myself to paint with watercolours. It took a long time and I’m still learning every day. I was in my early 30s – I think it was around 2006. I took one watercolour course and I basically just started reading books and watching YouTube videos. It takes time and patience and you (have) to give yourself permission to fail - a lot.
Q. Can you describe one experience that changed your life?
My first trip to Newfoundland. I grew up in Ontario and when I was in my mid-20s, I came to Corner Brook for the first time and just fell in love with Newfoundland and Gros Morne. That’s really a pivotal point for me when I decided to move here and give it a try.
Q. What’s your greatest indulgence?
Homemade cookies.
Q. What is your favourite movie or book?
My favourite movie is The Princess Bride and I can’t pick a favourite book. There are so many books.
Q. What are you reading or watching right now?
I just started reading Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese and I don’t really watch things.
Q. How do you like to relax?
I like to relax in nature. Definitely being near the ocean is relaxing.
Q. What is your greatest fear?
Losing my eyesight. So many of the things I like to do, I need my eyes for.
Q. If you were singing karaoke, what would be your song?
“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.
Q. What is your most treasured possession?
The letters my husband and I exchanged when we were first together and living long distance.
Q. What trait are you most grateful to a parent for?
My love of nature and also my creative spirit. Both of those things were things my parents encouraged in me.
Q. What three people would join you for your dream dinner party?
My husband Dirk, my best friend Erika, and my nan.
Q. What is your best quality, and what is your worst quality?
My best quality would be people always tell me I’m really patient and calm. My worst quality is that I worry too much about stuff.
Q. If you didn’t take this career path, what would you have chosen?
A chef.
Meet your Neighbour is a regular feature that profiles area residents. Want to suggest someone who should be featured? Email your idea to [email protected].
