Johanna R. Wright

Where did you grow up?

In Eugene, Oregon. Home of the Slug Queen, my family, and some very big and beautiful trees.

 

When did you start drawing?

I’m not sure really. I always liked to draw. I was in middle school when it struck me that I might actually be good at it

 

When did you start playing music?

I started playing the violin when I was nine, in the strings program they have in public schools. It was so packed in there with kids trying to learn, I was always getting poked in the eye with someone’s bow.

 

Do you eat enough vegetables?

Define enough.

 

Where did you go to college?

The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.

 

What did you study?

Puppetry and children’s books.

 

What kind of school lets you study that?

Well, Evergreen did. It’s a great school. It was a good fit for me.

 

Do you ride the bus a lot?

Not that much these days. But before I moved to New York, I did take the Greyhound bus across the country nine times in four years.

 

Why in the world did you take the bus cross country nine times?

You could get a one way ticket to New York on Greyhound for $38. No kidding. 38 bucks! You can’t beat that.

 

When did you move to New York?

In 1998, into a little apartment in Brooklyn that smelled like sliced onions. And cat pee. I had some nice roommates though, and that made up for it. I didn’t know anyone when I moved there.

 

Where did you work when you moved to New York?

I temped in offices for the first two months. Then I worked briefly as an elf at Macy’s but that didn’t work out. I was really, really broke.

 

So what did you do?

I started selling my art on the street.

 

What made you decide to do that?

In college, I’d written a paper about street artists in New York and their struggles with the city to sell their work. I knew a lot about the laws and what was allowed and not allowed… so I got up the guts to set up a little table on the street by the MoMA and started selling my art. It was so awesome. I did it for four years.

 

What was awesome about it?

There were a lot of other artists out there at the time and it was a lot of fun. I drew all day and hung out and talked to interesting people. My art started appearing in mysterious places..like on the Style Channel and in Japanese Elle magazine. It was crazy. I wasn't making much money, but I was so busy all of the time. Working myself crazy....

 

What kind of art did you sell?

At first I made handmade postcards while I sat out there, with ink and watercolor, but they were hard to handle. When the weather was cold my hands wouldn’t work and my paintbrush would freeze in my water dish. I moved on to making paintings on canvas in my studio and bringing them out with me to sell. That was a lot easier.

 

Did you ever get arrested selling your art?

No. I heard a lot of stories from other artists about that. I bypassed the days when that was a common thing. I did end up in court a few times. My charges were always thrown out… I was usually put in a room filled with people who had minor offenses. Mostly public urination.

 

Is that true?

Yes! There aren’t a lot of public bathrooms in New York. I actually heard a guy tell the judge…”Your Honor, when you gotta go…you gotta go.”

 

What made you stop selling on the street?

I was ready to try something new, and spend the winters inside. When I was offered a job as a painting assistant at Oliphant Studio, it was a nice transition. I suddenly had a nice steady paycheck. It allowed me to slow down and re-group with what I wanted to do creatively. I worked at Oliphant for three years.

 

What kind of stuff did you do there?

I assisted Sarah Oliphant in painting large scale backdrops for photography and film.

 

What was that like?

It was a lot of fun. I learned so much about painting large scale things. I learned all kinds of cool techniques, how to deal with clients, how to organize my time..and just how to take care of myself in general while I was working. It sounds crazy, but I learned how to take a lunch break at Oliphant! I worked with two great folks, Sarah and Wendy. The painted backdrops that we made appeared in all kinds of magazines, among other things...

 

What kind of magazines?

Ah geez, so many. Vogue, Vanity Faire, Elle, Marie Clare, O Magazine, Newsweek, Italian Vogue, Korean Elle, Rolling Stone...

 

Anything I would have seen recently?

There are some smaller paintings of mine that I made when I was with Oliphant, in the March 2006 issue of Town and Country.

 

Why did you quit such a great job?

I was ready to try something new. My boyfriend and I were ready to leave New York and head to Oregon so we could stretch our creative limbs a bit. New York is amazing and I will always love it. But sometimes you just need more time and space to do what you need to do....

 

What are you working on now?

A new Hanner album, a series of paintings for kids, new illustrations. So much stuff! Too much to list. A lot is happening at the moment.

 

What's your favorite board game?

Yahtzee.

 

Do you have any pets?

One great cat named Grandpaw.