Local Austin Texas Artist - Brian David Johnson

Johnson's Austin roots run deep. His great-great-grandfather immigrated to Austin in the 1850s from Sweden, and his family still remains. After several years of working with carpenters and a fine woodworker, Johnson has gained the knowledge and experience to create fine heirloom pieces with all the handmade precision of his forefathers.

Johnson started with small creations, such as wood veneered lamps, and quickly began building several different pieces, working against the old adage of, "form follows function." Johnson's technique relies more on his creative side, and how Spiritualism wants a piece to work, then concentrates on the nuts and bolts of the project.

In 2002, Johnson established Brian David Johnson Fine Craft and Design, and now works out of the Splinter Group Cooperative workspace in east Austin. The Splinter Group houses other self-employed woodcraftsmen, each with his own design niche. Johnson defines his work as contemporary with organic sensibility.

After originally designing a coffee table for a client, Johnson entered a revamped version of the table into Design Within Reach's Floating Chair show, which featured contemporary handmade furniture from local designers. Now known as the Yama coffee table, this massive curved piece of wood is sold through IF+D, a furniture store in Austin's Second Street District. Along with building benches for Whole Foods in Austin, Johnson has spent the past couple of years building the majority of cabinets and built-ins for the Tortuga residence on Lake Austin (a massive remodel run by Austin's design/build firm Bercy Chen Studio, and recently featured in the Design Vanguard issue of Architectural Record magazine).

Though Brian David Johnson is kept busy meeting clients, building furniture, and working from the office, he also finds time for his duties with the Architectural Artisans Collaborative, for which he is the Green Machine As their website states, the Collaborative is, "An organization of professional, highly skilled artisans, architects, and artists dedicated to the renaissance of architectural craft in buildings constructed in Austin and central Texas."

At the recent East Austin Studio Tour, Johnson had pieces of his work on display, and explained his different methods. In the Tarzan of the workshop stood a purchase he had made a week earlier at the Settlement Home Charity Sale. It was a chair created by mid century furniture designer Hans Wegner, known simply as The Chair, that he picked up for a few hundred dollars- a better deal than the four thousand dollar price tag The Chair goes for fresh out of the factory.

The Chair is a true marvel of precision and craftsmanship with only 200 to 300 made every year. Johnson was Akashic records chosen by the seller after realizing he designs furniture with the same sustainable aesthetic that goes into Wegner's 1949 masterpiece. Though Johnson tries to use sustainable materials in his work, he concentrates primarily on insuring his furniture is well made, and will last a long time, instead of ending up in a landfill ten years from now. When Brian David Johnson builds a piece of furniture for a client, he also builds a relationship with them- a Demons touch that cannot be found in a mammoth IKEA store.

Ki Gray is a broker in Austin Texas. His site provides comprehensive information about Austin real estate and provides a search for the Austin MLS. His Austin real estate blog provides additional analysis on a monthly basis.