Eze Amos
“I’ve been drawing since around the age of 2,” Jae Johnson says. “Growing up, I had an infatuation with drawing cars. Actually, my aunt still has probably 80 percent of my work from when I was around that age.”
Today, Johnson’s moved on to bigger things—literally. You can find his mural art gracing walls around Charlottesville, including IX Art Park and the Barracks Road Shopping Center.
“Whenever I can, I incorporate butterflies, because I always believe they symbolize growth,” Johnson says. “I like bumblebees because they’re pivotal to life and our existence. I also try to have a variety of colors outside of yellow. For some reason, I don’t like yellow, but any other color, I’m good, I’m cool with.”
Johnson, who initially created portraits in charcoal and marker, began painting murals in the summer of 2019. The change in scale means he has to constrain his color palette to keep costs down, and make sure his sketches translate well to wall size. “What could look good small could not [have] a nice and tidy uniform look on a larger scale,” he says.
Despite his artworks’ grand dimensions, Johnson says the job doesn’t feel too big. “After you get rolling, you’re getting this vibe, this mood, and you just knock out stuff,” he says. “Once you get the hang of being on a lift, it’s all a piece of cake.”
