New Exhibition Opening Tonight: Dale Johnson and Dan Shepherd

New Exhibition:  Dale Johnson "By the Sea" and Dan Shepherd "Blinded By Science"

Opening Tonight June 9, 2012 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Come and meet the artists and enjoy light refreshments

Dan Shepherd, Fagus #1, 2008, archival pigment print on parchment paper with deckle edge, 24" x 36"

Dale Johnson, Beachcombing, 2011, digital pigment print, 30" x 30"

Dreamy views of the shore capture the imagination in Johnson’s “By the Sea” series.

Johnson is an accomplished artist who worked with charcoal, gouache, watercolor, and

pastel for several decades but eventually turned to photography to satisfy her desire for

a sense of spontaneity. Inspired by both Pictorialism in photography and Pointillism in

painting, Johnson seeks to create with the quick click of the shutter the soft, hazy effects

she cherished in her work in other mediums. Johnson states, “[m]y art education led

me to appreciate the quality of light, form and texture and how they set the tone or

mood for my photographs in composition, palette and texture.”

Johnson earned her B.F.A. from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. She has

exhibited across the country, and as a winner in the Emerging Focus Photography

Competition, her work was exhibited at Photo L.A. 2012. In 2010, Johnson’s

photographs were published in “Color Magazine,” Special Issue #10, and “Urban

Country Landscape,” The Worldwide Gala Awards. Johnson lives and works in Carmel,

California and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The trees of Manhattan’s Central Park arrive in Santa Monica in Shepherd’s “Blinded by

Science” series. With these works, Shepherd seeks the antidote to his view of the

world as an environmental scientist and student of botany–someone so “blinded by

science” that trees are more subjects of study than objects of beauty. By treating the

leaves and branches of trees as parts of an abstraction, Shepherd rediscovers the

aesthetic wonders of nature. He states, “I am using the artistic power of abstraction to

create images of some of my favorite plants and trees, which helps me filter out the

science details and lets me focus on the pure beauty of nature.”

Dan Shepherd has a master’s degree in environmental science from Columbia University

and an International Diploma in Plant Conservation from the Royal Botanic Garden,

Kew, England. He holds a B.A. in Japanese from the University of Oregon. His work

has been shown in various locations throughout the country, and has been featured in

several recent publications, including: “The Orion Magazine,” “The F-Stop Magazine –

Abstraction” and “Lenscratch.” This is his first show at dnj Gallery.

For more information about the exhibition and the artists click Here

For a map and directions to the gallery click Here