Skysong Studios
Artist soars with ArtKites, lands with JourneyScapes
By Shari Kaplan
Local artist Dolly Cahill Johnson has her head in the clouds. Far from being an uncomplimentary remark about her emotional state, this is, in fact, a complimentary observation about her inborn creative powers. Just as a kite riding the winds, Johnson has learned to harness these powers and use them to travel to new and colorful places and spaces.
It's also a physical description of where she documents these travels--the appropriately named Skysong Studios, her artistic haven on a scenic outcropping off Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Skysong Studios is actually part of her roomy, two-story home, which offers a view of the heavens above, as well as the forested and often misty canyon below.
"It took me years to call myself an artist. To me, it's a real achievement and honor to call yourself that," she says, taking a sip from her mug while surveying her surroundings with a smile. "If you want to be an artist, you have to work at it. To be able to work in art is an incredible privilege for me."
A professional artist for some 25 years, Johnson is still humble about her craft--but also passionate and prolific. Over the years, more than 1,500 mixed-media creations have been born in her bright and airy home studio: emotive paintings she calls JourneyScapes, carefree ArtKites and various other works of art, including many specially commissioned pieces.
Johnson says she's enjoyed art since her youth, but admits she did not originally think she had enough talent. As a youth, she noticed that everyone else doodled pictures on their Pee Chee folders, while she mainly stuck with shapes. While studying at Stanford University, she took a basic art class to fill a hole in her schedule. She enjoyed it, but it also raised some doubts: "The teacher said I was good, but probably not good enough to be an artist," she recalls.
She not only learned the basics of art, but also learned that anyone could learn to draw, given the right training. "Whether it's something you love and can do with expression, however, is another matter!" she adds, chuckling.
Although she did love it, she ended up majoring in psychology, with an emphasis on liberal arts. After graduation, she found herself doing graphic design for the college division of SRA, a learning materials publisher. It called for creativity, but not enough to satisfy Johnson.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Surrounded by paints, brushes and other supplies, Dolly Johnson works on her next kite project.
Following two years of classes at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco and the support and encouragement of her husband, Bob, Johnson decided to pursue full time the thing she most wanted to do--be an artist.
Johnson also wanted a family, and with three children born within a few years of each other, the young artist became good at juggling. Those children are now 21-year-old Ryan, 19-year-old Gavin and 16-year-old Kelly. They exhibit their mother's creative streak in a slightly different way--all are talented musicians who've performed in Los Gatos High School's Wildcat Marching Band and the San Jose Symphony Youth Orchestra, for both of which Johnson volunteers. Kelly is also a drum major in the Santa Clara Vanguard.
"I realized that this cute little baby wouldn't sit still while I was working with oil-based etching inks," Johnson recalls of her firstborn son and the involved method of making monotype prints she used at the time. Then she remembered how much she enjoyed her watercolor classes at the Academy of Art College, so she tried her brush at that.
"I liked using the watercolors because I could do small and quick pieces, while working around two active little boys," she adds about life after her second son. "By painting small pieces, I had a way of finishing them."
During the years that followed, Johnson says she "just kept painting and painting." In the 1970s and '80s, she also got--and kept--her foot in the professional circuit door by participating in many group exhibitions and one- and two-person shows throughout the Bay Area.
Sometimes the venues were the standard museums and art galleries, but just as her art, Johnson is never limited to the ordinary. She also exhibited at vineyards, theaters, city council chambers, churches, restaurants, retirement homes and high-tech corporations.
Slide courtesy of Dolly Cahill Johnson
Along with her kites, Dolly Johnson is also known for painting what she calls her JourneyScapes, such as 'Splash Dance.'
The majority of her paintings are JourneyScapes, which she paints with a combination of watercolors, airbrush, soft pastel and colored pencil on rag watercolor paper. She layers the media not only for the sake of color, but also to produce artistic effects, such as texture, warmth, emotion and depth. Although the blend of these elements is unique in each of her paintings--which bear such titles as Ancient Dreams, Parchment Echoes, Sea Droplet and Sand Spirits--all of them share an ethereal glow that seems to emanate from within.
"I guess all of my pieces have a glow to them. It's almost a spiritual thing, but not necessarily religious," she reflects. "A lot of people say 'Gee, I don't usually like abstract art, but I like yours.' I think it's because my art is generally very positive. I want there to be space, light and rhythm that people can respond to emotionally."
Around 1994, Johnson added her trademark ArtKites to the mix, inspired, she says, by the idea that her paintings are like doors into a world that viewers can explore and soar through, adding something of themselves along the way. The kites, which she likens to "paintings set free," consist of a similar blend of media as her paintings, only now they are diamond shaped, stretched onto bamboo frames and given fanciful tails.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Dolly Johnson selects just the right color from her palette of pastels to put the finishing touches on an ArtKite.
Johnson has continued her exhibition activities into the 1990s and 2000s and has also added a handful of outdoor fine arts shows. One of her reasons for this is because these events help bring art and people together who otherwise might not meet.
"In the [Silicon] Valley, there's an incredible amount of creativity, but in engineering and high-tech fields there's just not much space in people's lives for art and art appreciation," says Johnson, whose venues include the Saratoga Rotary Art Show, the Palo Alto Art Festival, the Los Altos Art and Wine Festival and the San Ramon Art and Wind Festival.
The title of the latter fest may look like a typo, but that is, in fact, its name. And it's a perfect fit for Johnson's ArtKites--although they cannot truly fly, they're about as close to wind-art as it gets. And, like her JourneyScapes, the kites also bear enchanting names that match their unusual colors and shapes: Autumn Song, Lace Secret, Oak Shadow, Star Fire and Twilight Wind, to name a few. They range from 57-by-37-inch giants to 13-by-9-inch kitelets, with several sizes in between.
"My work isn't commonplace, but it's not unreachable either. I like artwork that takes me someplace I haven't been. I try to create that for others, too," she says, smiling. "I never care what people see in my art--as long as they see something. I just want to communicate with them."
For more information, or to visit Skysong Studios, call Johnson at 408.354.1513. Information is also available on the Internet at www.skysongstudios.com.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
Dolly Cahill Johnson lets her creativity soar when she fashions her trademark ArtKites, such as this one, titled 'Oak Shadow.'
