Multiple piercings mixed with freshly baked pies. Ripped fishnets with oven mits. Voluptuous oil paint with detailed blueprint renderings. Each painting crosses the two worlds to arrive at a third. Johnson's works arrive at an unmistakably modern perspective by referencing classical portraiture with pushed, exaggerated colours. Subversive, slightly surreal, humorous and thought provoking.

"I grew up with this cookbook. My early cooking attempts resulted in 95% of its many stains. But the stylized line drawings showing well-heeled, pearl-wearing women greeting their successful husbands at the door with pipes and pies never drew me in. Although funny, for the most part I found the images disturbing and weird. I knew instinctively that these people did not exist nor had they when my mother was a girl. This project is not inspired by nostalgia.

Recently, I feel like I've encountered these images again in their 21st century form. In my urban environment (Toronto) as with many other North American cities right now these images are everywhere in the form of condo advertising. Laughing couples with impeccable taste. Projecting the myth of the perfect life. These images suggest that such luxuries are deserved, are normal. Not only should nothing less should be settled for but nothing else should be acknowledged. Or even seen.

These are the misplaced social priorities that have inspired me to resurrect the absurd characters found in amongst Ms. Crocker's recipes and recast them. To mess with the idea of the ideal life by dressing it down. Way down. To give exposure to the part of our urban social scene that many people would rather not see." (Johnson, 2007)