User:Mjohnsonlasvegas

Mike Johnson
Las Vegas artist

Mike Johnson (1958-     ) is an award-winning news artist who works for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevadas' largest metropolitan daily nnewspaper. He has worked for some of Las Vegas largest ad agencies and publications, but has been with the paper since 1985. Born in Heidelburg, Germany, Mike came to the United States in the early 1960's when his father was stationed at Edgewwod Arsenal, Maryland. Mike's interest in commercial art in junior high in the 70's helped his career decision early on, where he was influenced by many of the 1970's popular artists like Peter Max, R. Crumb and Vaughn Bode. He would spend hours trying to duplicate the airbrushed Fender instrument ads found in Rolling Stone and National Lampoon with his Paasche V airbrush. Although from the old school of art and illustration, Mike started working on Macintosh computers before they became popular in the early 1980's, when the Creative Services department purchased one Macintosh II with a scanner as a test base. Mike would stay after work and practise with the seemingly clumsy drawing programs, MacDraw and the first version of Freehand. A position became open for an editorial artist to be hired in-house and Mike would use his newly-gained computer skills to win the position, beating out the other artists. He is training in 3D environments shows in his perspective work. Mike specializes in informational graphics, but also works with animation, multimedia and video projects. He has won several awards for his advertising work, including twoAddy awards, and won a first place in the 2006 Nevada State Press Association contest in 2006, while also picking up second place for illustration. Some of his freelance clients include the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and actress Madeline Parquette's production company, EVG. He was also a member of Las Vegas' "Into the Fire" skydiving exhibition team, who was featured in Andrew Bergman's hit movie, "Honeymoon in Vegas." Although seriously injured months before, Mike ran the ground crew for the movie. He's known for escaping death through freak accidents that seem to follow him through life, some have said accident prone, but Mike attributes the injuries to not being one to sit on a couch. His favorite saying is I can be your worst friend or your best enemy. He is native of Las Vegas, Nevada, having lived there over 30 years, although owning land interests in Grand Bahama.





Award-winning spine graphic