EARVILLE - Fine art photographer JW Johnston’s work is currently featured in the Earlville Opera House’s West Gallery and resists creative limitations. His exhibit “Home Body” examines imprints of time and family on his boyhood home, and himself, in a 120-year-old house in Whitney Point, NY. His work ranges from representational natural landscapes to abstracts of form and texture.  

Johnston is hosting a Closing Artist Talk on Saturday, November 4 at 1pm to discuss the content of his show. As stated by Johnston, “This is my home and I wear it like skin. This is where casual conversation provides sustenance, where triumphs are celebrated, failures endured, where my father died despite my attempts to resuscitate him, and where I once shared an observation with my mother before remembering she had died a week earlier. Evidence of my parents’ lives is everywhere: from my father’s fading notes and carpentry calculations on cracked-paint walls to my mother’s now mud-encrusted canning jars on the cellar’s dirt floor. Cleaning up the evidence would erase some of my parents’ story - my story, too. I yearn for the illusion of permanence. I am all too aware that life is ephemeral. We all experience the passage and ravages of time. No matter one’s race, religion, ideology, or status, we all die. People we love die. We mourn, cope, and seek comfort in individual ways. Home Body is one way I cope. I memorialize as caretaker, curator, son.”

This is Johnston’s newest, most autobiographical project and his Artist Talk will close this exhibit which has been on display since September 23. This event is free and open to the public.

In addition, Johnston is offering a three-part photography workshop series “Photographing the Everyday” at the Opera House on November 11, 18, and 25, 1 to 3 p.m.

This course is a new workshop designed to help photographers be more open to, engage with, and make pictures of what's fascinating in their everyday lives. Participants are encouraged to use their smartphones, a camera ideal for this type of workshop. Johnston will offer plenty of tips to help you improve your phone camera image-capture and photo-editing skills.   He'll also share insights on developing a mind-set to help access everyday beauty that often hides in plain sight. Participants are encouraged to practice what they've learned between sessions and share their work during class. Register online at www.earlvilleoperahouse.com or call 315-691-3550, and visit jwjohnston.com for more information on this talented artist.

Earlville Opera House Arts Center is located at 18 East Main Street in the charming Village of Earlville, NY and is wheelchair accessible. The 1892 theater is equipped with a hearing loop system provided by Hamilton Hearing LLC. Please check our website for information on our programs and services, also like us on Facebook and Instagram.

Events are made possible, in part, with public funds from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor of New York and the New York State Legislature, and through the generosity of EOH members.

-Information form the EOH