Livestream with artist Daniel Johnston

Artist and Potter Daniel Johnston combines his interest in architecture, engineering, installation art, and various traditions of making pottery to create works that control space and environment. By changing the way people interact with the pots by altering light, position, and how the pots exist in the spaces he creates, he intends to evoke emotion, and feed the viewer enough information so they might take a journey. He speaks of activating the mind in order to create a fuller experience, rather than allowing viewers to make assumptions or approach the work with preconceived notions. His installations often use visual metaphors as an emotional backdrop for the installations. Johnston also notes that his response as an artist is to think about what he does and what it means, and to create something that transcends knowledge, which he then communicates to other people.

His first exhibition of the cross-over from potter to installation artist was held in 2015 at Greenhill Center for North Carolina Art in Greensboro. Since then, he has created installations at Peters Projects art gallery in Sante Fe NM, and has an installation along the Meadow Trail at the NC Museum of Art sculpture park. He also has work featured in museum collections such as The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, The Gregg Museum of Art & Design, Raleigh, NC, and the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC. He has lectured and taught several workshops across the Southeast including at the Smithsonian’s Folk Life Festival in Washington, DC, Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC and St. Ives Ceramics in St Ives, Cornwall, England.