For years, Awesome Art We’ve Found Around The Net has been about two things only – awesome art and the artists that create it. With that in mind, we thought why not take the first week of the month to showcase these awesome artists even more? Welcome to “Awesome Artist We’ve Found Around The Net.” In this column, we are focusing on one artist and the awesome art that they create, whether they be amateur, up and coming, or well established. The goal is to uncover these artists so even more people become familiar with them. We ask these artists a few questions to see their origins, influences, and more. If you are an awesome artist or know someone that should be featured, feel free to contact me at any time at theodorebond@joblo.com.This month we are very pleased to bring you the awesome art of…
Johnny Crap
Jonathan Bergeron A.K.A. Johnny Crap was born in Montreal, Canada, where he lives and works. Since the mid 90’s he has been involved in the Montreal graffiti scene under the “ZEN” moniker, where he still do occasional mural work.
Johnny is mostly a studio painter, doing figurative fine art and lowbrow/comic/sci fi inspired illustrations. For years he has been designing merchandise for musical acts such as Slayer, Guns n Roses, Alice Cooper and Anthrax to name a few as well as doing freelance illustration work for brands like Nike, Under Armour, Metal Mulisha and Dethrone.
In 2019 he was introduced to the Pinball world by designing the Jurassic park pinball packages for Stern, the biggest Pinball manufacturer in the world.
JOBLO: The first time that I was introduced to the art of Mr. Johnny Crap was when I purchased one of my first pinball machines back in 2019 by name of Jurassic Park. I was still a pinball newbie at that time so the game itself ended up being too hard for me, but I dug that friggin’ playfield art (done by Johnny himself). It was only a few weeks after that that I ended up meeting him in person at a local Montreal pinball tournament at the North Star Pinball bar and as it turns out, he lives in the same city as me! (and we grew up on much of the same music and cult flicks) I dug his art so much that we asked him to design many of the JoBlo T-shirts currently on our JOBLO STORE as well as the “mascot” of sorts, Johnny Horror, for our exhaustive “80s Horror Memories” documentary on YouTube. Since then, I’ve seen Johnny plenty of times at North Star and we both recently finished in the top 8 of the X-Men Pinball Tournament last weekend, which was a blast. A bientot!
JOBLO: What got you started as an artist?
JOHNNY:I’d say my most formative years as an artist were the 80’s. Listening to punk and getting into graffiti and skateboarding like many other artists I know, was really the catalyst for what I do. It’s still the base of what I do. For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawing. Surprisingly enough my mother wanted me to chase the artist dream, usually parents try to push you into something more stable as a career. So I did the opposite and tried other stuff for a while, even though I kept drawing and doing some freelance art on the side. About 25 years ago, after losing a boring job, I decided to start living off my freelance art full time. I was doing more gig posters, mostly local gigs, but then out of the blue I was asked to design some merch for Kid Rock (of all people). I’d probably have a different answer these days but it led me to do merchandise for Slayer, Guns n’ Roses, Alice Cooper and Anthrax to name a few.
Who were some of your favorite artists growing up?
At some point I was into impressionist painters but then I discovered Otto Dix, the Expressionist painter and I really liked it work. It was a little more macabre, the horror of war and all that. Pushead was also a big influence, his work for Metallica, Zorlack skateboard and all that. His ink work with stippling had a punk edge that I liked. I mean, I was really into the whole punk aesthetic, Sub Hum Hans, Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, Exploited and Black Flags album covers and shirts were huge for me when I was 15. Many artists doing D&D sword and sorcery fantasy art were also very influentials, even though I didn’t play the games, Greg Hildebrant, Frazetta…they were such great artists, cranking up a crazy amount of work with insane deadlines. Drew Struzan too. You can’t grow up in the 80’s without falling in love with his movie poster work.
Who do you really dig these days, follow on Instagram?
I like the scale model that Ryan Thomas Monahan does. His work is really cool. He does stuff like miniature reproduction of the Seinfeld apartment door, old video store front, Vans stores…stuff like that. Another fun one is Guznag. He does fun little ink and watercolour illustrations of neat little monsters. I honestly follow too many great artists to name them. I also have terrible memory of names.
What advice would you have for budding artists today?
Do your thing and keep at it. Some of you will succeed faster than others but if you put in the work and will things will happen. And be true to yourself. It shows when you work on things that you have no interest in. I still think about quitting all of it after all these years, but that doesn’t last. I NEED to draw, and when you need to draw people will find you for what you are good at.
What should we be looking out for from you in the future?
I’ve been working in the pinball world since 2018. I did art for the Jurassic Park pinball machine for Stern Pinball, as well as the Jim Henson’s Labyrinth pinball machine by Barrel Of Fun. So hopefully you’ll see more games with my art on in the very near future. I still design band merch too, so more of that is coming up. I just did some tour shirts for D.R.I, a crossover Thrash band that I was listening to when I was 14 years old. Those kind of gigs are close to my heart, I feel like I have a personal relation ship to some music.
Being a fansite, we have to ask you… What are some of your favorite movies/TV shows of all time?
WEIRD SCIENCE! That movie had a long lasting impact on my brain. haha. I still watch it regularly in the studio. Of couse everything Star Wars, hopefully one day I’ll do some art for the licence. Conan The Barbarian is another one on constant rotation and I keep saying that it would bake a killer pinball game. The soundtrack is really good too.
I am also a Seinfeld head. I don’t want to hear nothing about Friends.
Scroll down to check out some of our favorite art pieces from Johnny as we continue to follow his journey across his Website and social media hubs: Instagram / X / Treads / Store
Anrhrax
D.R.I.
Eightball Beyond
Final Resistance
Golden State Pinball Festival
Gollum
Guns N Roses
Heavy Montreal
Jawas
Jurassic Park
Labyrinth
Luke Skywalker
Northstar Pinball Bar
Northwest Pinball & Arcade
Primus
Skeletor
Spider-Man
Suicidal Tendencies
Yoda