After studying commercial art and painting, California native David Johnson worked for 4 decades for a Bay Area daily newspaper. Initially hired as a compositor, his first swing shift task was laying out pages. That job evolved into providing infographics and then illustrations for local news stories, and involved deep collaboration with editorial. 

I’d pick up the phone: “News art. Dave.” And that was a whole fun thing, figuring out how to present information clearly. Declutter, get to the nut of it. It should be something somebody can look at and see immediately what this information is about. 

Although his ‘news art’ job required rigorous pictorial clarity, his own paintings are tethered to a love of the abstract expressionists and offer works that are at once personal and mystical. The Steadfast offerings include work produced over decades, in both the personal and professional realms.