About
Meet the Artists behind Johanna Parker Design
Johanna Parker Design is truly a cottage-based design team in Colorado with two creative folks that love each other and love making things with their hands. Johanna was born on Halloween! So, given that along with her affinity for art and color, as well as all things vintage whimsy, she found herself creating happy-spirited and often spooky characters from papier mache. Being a craftsman by trade, her husband JP d'Andrimont joined her in partnership to help assist in the visionary and art-making process to expand her reach. Besides Halloween, their folk art collections also include Christmas, Spring-Easter, Valentines and other fun and seasonal themes. Today, Johanna Parker Design creates a limited number of folk art originals each year as well as licensed collections for the gift and surface design industry. Any given day at the JP cottage may include a touch of painting, sculpting, sanding, along with some graphic design, pattern making, photography and illustration. All that is juggled with intermittent bursts of pack and shipping collectibles, and they try to sneak in some gardening time too!
So, how did Johanna Parker Design take root?...
The Story
It all started with a dream for creative freedom, and a desire to create characters that make people smile. After working as an Art Director in the TV news industry with an Emmy award achievement, Johanna was ready to abandon the media madness for happier subject matter. And, that's exactly what she did! With JP's support, well, the rest is history. Johanna longed for the days when she crafted with mom, making one of a kind holiday folk art for craft fairs and holiday bazaars. After cutting her corporate ties, a spark of inspiration moved her to reconnect with her tactile roots and refine her technique. Focusing on vintage style Halloween, it was a grinning black cat head with an illustrated conical hat that launched her business in 2003 and established her signature style. Well almost 2 decades later, Johanna Parker Design is rolling along quite nicely, offering one of a kind collectibles for a niche Halloween and holiday collector's market as well as populating shops and larger stores from shore to shore and beyond with reproductions that capture her whimsical look. She has appeared in close to 40 national magazines for her unique characters, decorative aesthetic and illustrations. And, more features are on the horizon! She is grateful to her amazingly creative mother for encouraging her artistry, as well as her husband for supporting and often fabricating her eccentric visions. And, of course, she is humbled by her fans and collectors that support her artistic endeavors and allow her to continue creating from her heart....
And let's not forget about Johanna Parker Design's furry mascot and perennial muse, Jack the black cat! He's been there since the start, inspiring Johanna's folk art and illustrative work along the way. In fact, he was the inspiration behind her first Halloween sculpt and continues to influence her designs as well as model her various creations throughout the year.
During the formative years of their venture, Johanna and JP were doing as many as 8 art shows a year. But as licensing opportunities picked up as well as demand from collectors, Johanna desired more time in her studio to create. Today, they have simplified their schedule to occasionally exhibit in local Colorado events. They are open to other spontaneous shows should they feel the spark to exhibit. Keep an eye on their Events page and save the date/s to join Johanna & JP at an upcoming art show. In the meantime, they'll be at home, creating... (likely with art direction by Jack!)