Meet Tyler Johnson | Fabricator & Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tyler Johnson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tyler, what role has risk played in your life or career?
For better part of a decade I’ve made an obsession fabricating my Father’s large scale public sculptures. Doing so, I’ve forgone building a normal career of my own to build his work that he couldn’t have completed alone because of age and health problems. For a time there was success and pride shared with what we created.

But now after his passing I’m left with questions of how much I want to keep risking.

Do I somehow build the remaining models he left behind or do I let it all go and move on. I want to keep going and finished what I started, what does it matter if I’m left in ruin once it’s done. The significance of it outweighs any potential and likely failure ahead for me.

Now I’m touring on a motorcycle, doing a loop around the entirety of the country spreading his ashes with no real plan. Now risk has a new meaning for me, I can see I’m slowly allowing myself to become careless as the days pass, either being hard on the throttle, finding an escape being throwing into the rolling curves of pothole marked roads or sleeping in risky places I stumble upon through town after town, city after city, state after state.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
To work with my Father building sculptures wasn’t a planned thing. It just happened one year and I can’t even remember exactly when it started. One year we just started and as time passed we grew more into the process.

The two of us building his work, slowly watching over months as something that was at first only a one foot tall model become a twenty foot steel form looming above us.

Finished, we would load the sculpture onto the flatbed trailer and make our way to the destination for the install, usually a few states away. Once installed we would photograph the work and linger for an hour or so until we drove off discussing the next piece we want to build.

It went on like that for a decade. Just the two of us in the studio or in that beat up red truck driving for hours and hours.

We would have arguments sometimes were I would eventually walk away only to return half an hour later to continue on with the work. There were times we couldn’t work for days and day because of some bottleneck problem we couldn’t solve. There were also times it couldn’t be any more perfect, working in the summer with a cool breeze coming in as we slap on sheet after sheet of steel quickly building up large parts of the latest sculpture.

Just the two of us alone.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would start off by getting in the car and driving off to some backcountry hikes. Pack up our gear, start driving out while stoping randomly for food and gas, buying random trinkets we find hilarious.

More than likely we would search out a mountain to summit that’s not too technical but still challenging.

One could easily spend a week exploring the hidden parts of the land,photographing the landscape, getting absolutely drunk at camp, or hiking all day and into the night until your legs burn and you are out of water.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My Father obviously played the central role in my experiences. Starting years ago when he would show me basic welding and fabrication techniques during my sporadic visits home from Korea. Each visit I learned more and more, showing me little tricks or tools I had been unaware of.

My Mother was the one that sacrificed the most out of all of us, the entire family wouldn’t be what it is without her.

Words are lacking and weightless when it comes to describing any facet of her.

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