My name is Johnston Foster and I'm 30 years old.
If somebody came up to you and asked you what your work is all about, how would you explain
it to them in 60 seconds or less?
Mr. Foster, what is this artwork all about?
If I had to explain what my work was about in 60 seconds, I would have to describe it roughly
starting with the process would be a lot of scavenging and finding stuff and taking inventory
of random materials and just a fascination with collecting this junk and stuff like that.
And then just reconfiguring it into new things inspired by the natural world and society itself.
That sounds so cheesy and lame but it's about relationships I guess.
I mean it's about struggle and conflict but it's also funny and violent with a slapstick feel.
But I don't know, is that 60 seconds?
That's how many you can get wrong.
The feeling of being able to manipulate objects or make something from nothing is dissatisfying.
At its core that's what the work probably is most romantically about I guess.
Just me creating and a lot of the things that I end up creating have to do with destruction
or things falling apart.
And I think that has to do with a lot of the work that ends up looking kind of detailed
and meticulously built but still has this raw kind of mad dash sort of slapstick approach
to object making that sort of un-fine tune.
It's not fine tuned at all and it's very impulsively built.
I think that's sort of impulsive to create something quickly because I want to work fast to get my ideas up.
The work is, I don't really know what it is.
It's like each piece sort of another step in trying to figure out what it is.
I try not to think about it too much really and it sounds kind of like I'm on autopilot but I just like it to become natural.
So what led you to work with the mediums you work with?
Have you always been a sculptor?
Do you even like that being called a sculptor?
Yeah, I guess I do. I like being an artist and I guess you could categorize as being a sculptor
but I've always been collecting stuff. I'd always bring stuff home when I was younger.
We're always building tree forts and skateboard ramps and stuff like that and going through the wood piles
and up the construction sites and finding tools and just using whatever we could to build things to skate on or whatever.
I think when I'm going to art school that this sort of evolves into this sort of the same process
but the outcomes are a little different.
But yeah, I like object maker, sculptor, whatever. I mean it is primarily what I do and I guess I think in three dimensions
so that seems to be what's most natural to me.
So most of your pieces are animals. Can you explain why?
Yeah, not all of them are animals. I mean there's like elements to it.
My tendency towards the animals, I think the animal imagery in the work I think has just been sort of,
I kind of think about like, you know, Aesop's fables or like Greek mythology, Roman mythology,
like ancient myths and legends and how animals are used to articulate stories and they're personified
different characteristics of humans and I think it's just a really great way to, you know,
it's a really great language and vocabulary, you know, and sort of articulate ideas and narratives and the work
but they're not and like, but they're also just, they're like fun to make, you know.
I mean it's like with the roosters here, you know, it's just these flamboyant over-the-top like creatures
just inspired by their family, you know, and their personalities and so I think that's like,
they help articulate ideas and there are also a lot of the materials I use like,
lend themselves really nicely to it, you know, and that's like a lot of things.
It's not necessarily the idea of like, I want to make a dog or I want to make a turtle.
It's more like, whoa, wait, this trash can lid, this could be like a turtle shell.
So it, they dictate what they could become and I think it's just sort of my impulse
to sort of think of creatures, you know, and it's like I said before,
it's just like fun to make like these wild, like, exactly the kind of thing.
And again, I'm like, I'm fascinated by the natural world and sort of my own take on it
and act like in this unnatural way.
What would you say are some of the things that inspire you?
You know, that's pretty vague, but you know, like other artists, music, the natural world, obviously.
Yeah, lately I've been like inspired by tar pits.
They're pretty cool.
I've been like checking them out, you know, just crazy, you know, oils and sort of like,
pools of it, just bubbling, gurgling out of there, they're pretty cool.
Like, what else have I been into lately?
I mean, like, I'm really into skateboarding.
I haven't been skateboarding much, but I've watched videos like constantly of it.
And I guess I'm like, kind of obsessed with this sort of, I don't know how it's evolved in a way.
I don't know, that's like my only like sports thing, you know.
But I've been thinking a lot about like applying skating to just the sculpture.
And I think it has a lot to do with, you know, it's sort of like the way kids look for skate spots
and things to skate and they like approach it in like ways that it wasn't supposed to.
So where I really like am excited about, you know, I feel like when I'm out looking for stuff,
like looking for skate spots and like finding new tricks and stuff like that.
So what do you see your work evolving?
Like, how has it changed over even the last year?
And, you know, do you have some sort of idea of where it's going?
Or have you even thought about that?
I, you know, my work in the last year, I guess I've been teaching a lot
and it's sort of changed my focus on where my work has been going.
And I've seen my teaching influencing my studio practice.
So I see my work going and it's really, I want to branch it out and be a little more experimental.
And I feel like I want to keep it natural and not think too much about it and see it go,
you know, just let it evolve organically on its own.
But I also see myself trying different things, like simplifying.
You know, I feel like I've been really like huge attention to detail
and I'd like to see myself loosen up even more.
And I don't even know what that means really.
But I think I'd like to do something that doesn't even look like I made it.
And I'm trying to like break away from, not that I feel like I'm happy with where I'm going,
but I'd like to like see myself like, you know, basically learn another language.
I don't know what that'll be, but, you know, sometimes I feel like I'm repeating myself in a way.
But I guess that's what, you know, that's the thing, that's what's awesome about art
is that it has to grow, you know, it has to change.
In order to make good work, I think it has to, it has to surprise yourself
and be a step ahead of what you think you're supposed to be doing.
Thank you.
