From the 2011 RomeArtProgram has selected alumnus Don Johnson to contribute to “Throwback Thursday”, including his memories from that time:
->: “I spent two weeks in Florence in 2011 with Rome Art Program.
When I speak about my time spent with the Rome Art Program and the Artistic Director Carole Robb, I tell people it’s where I really learned how to paint.
Experiencing the history and culture of Rome itself was life changing, but drawing and painting with the group changed me as an artist.
My bodies of work took a bold turn once I returned to grad school after the program, and I began to explore painting in layers of washes, much like the watercolors I had worked on all summer in Rome. I went into the program as a printmaker and I came out a painter.
After the summer I spent with RAP in 2011, I was accepted into the Palazzo Rinaldi residency in Naples, at the south.
While attending the residency, I continued to grow as a painter and began to gather drawings for my MFA Thesis.
I graduated from the University of Idaho with my MFA in 2013. I have since moved to Denver where there is a vibrant art scene and participate in group shows.
One of my biggest accomplishments as an artist is my solo show at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
I currently work in the Oil & Gas industry, as I continue to grow my painting into a bill paying career!
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Rome Art Program – Art As Power