Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson

Artwork

Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson

I am fascinated with the combination of text or story with a picture. Not necessarily the direct combination of words on an image, like a comic, or using text as the art, like graphic design or illuminated texts, but rather the way the image brings on ideas, words, and its own narrative. Like any good story, there is a certain amount of freedom the reader gets using their imagination to create an understanding and mental picture of what they read. My images are the reverse, allowing the viewer the chance to use their imaginations to create the story surrounding the scene they see.

These images are rooted in true events in my life and my thoughts in relation to them. I use those ideas as a starting point in each image’s creation. As I continue to develop the image—the main character, the relationship of the character to the space, and the supplementary details—a new narrative develops. Unlike a typical story with a beginning, middle, and end, these images only give a hint of a plot, like one scene of a story. It allows each viewer to come up with their own narrative by forcing them to answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. Beginning with a truth and ending in the middle, the viewer gets to create their own visual literacy.

Suicide Spiral (Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson)
Lithograph 3 (Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson)
Jellies (Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson)
Lithograph 14 (Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson)

About the Author

Jenny Starr-Busch Johnson is inspired by a variety of illustrative artists and their individual styles, such as Alfred Rethel, Wilhelm von Kaulbach, Dr. Seuss, and Caspar David Friedrich. Her artwork revolves around happenings in her life and her imaginative responses to them. They are mainly executed with lithographic stone printmaking or mixed media drawing. She is a recent graduate from Missouri State University with a BFA in printmaking and drawing and a BSED in art education with a minor in art history.