Ailsa Johnson’s Sparkling Souvenirs from Tokyo

Peculiar animals come to life in Ailsa Johnson‘s illustrations. Using a palette of bright colours, the British illustrator takes inspiration from her own experiences to create vibrant pieces of art. A keen observer, she immerses herself in her everyday life and transforms it into a fabulous space. She discovered her passion for drawing at the University of Edinburgh. ‘I’ve always been a creative person, but I could never find a medium to use to express myself… Illustration was a revelation. I work mainly digitally, but I sometimes also paint’, she tells us.

For three years, Ailsa Johnson lived in Yanaka, a district in Tokyo with an ambiance she particularly liked. While there, she immersed herself in an unknown, stimulating culture. ‘It’s easy to feel inspired by a cultural and aesthetic environment that’s so different from your own. I remember visiting the Ota Memorial Museum of Art in Shibuya district as often as I could, and also the museum of traditional Japanese toys in Kurashiki’, she adds.

Between the real and the imaginary

In the heart of Japan, however, the artist did not produce any pieces. ‘I was completely stuck! So I spent my time soaking up the charm of Tokyo, travelling, eating, experiencing as many different things as possible… It wasn’t until just before I left Japan that I had the opportunity to exhibit my work at Almost Perfect: it was time to make use of all those memories I’d stored up’, the illustrator explains.

Thus, subjects naturally came to the artist’s mind, in a series of striking images that blur the boundaries between the real and the imaginary. Her creations exude a certain sense of magical realism. The animals, captured in action, appear ready to jump out of the images. Every detail imagined by the artist is rooted in her time spent in Japan. ‘My toad, for example, is inspired by a real statue I discovered on Okazu Yokocho, in Taito’, she explains. Just like kimono, which fascinate her, Ailsa Johnson’s body of work has several levels. ‘There’s a formal dimension that pays attention to shapes and lines, and other dimensions that emphasise contrasts, colours and materials’, she concludes. This unusual way of immortalising unique experiences is also found in Culture Trip, a series in vibrant colours, inspired by culinary curiosities from around the world.

Souvenir (2019) by Ailsa Johnson can be found on her website.