Beauty Is a Rare Thing

Amazing portraits of iconic jazz musicians of the 40s, 50s and 60s by San Francisco based artist Ian M. Johnson. These are people who were cultural innovators as well as true artists, and whose music truly embodied notions of freedom, dignity and respect. Ian Johnson paints to their music and his portraits capture the visages of jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker perfectly. More than simply an aural experience, jazz, with its enthusiastic blend of compositional structure and improvisation, is an exercise in imagination and visualization. These portraits are as vibrant as the music itself, full of color, rhythm and melodic flights of fantasy. Ian Johnson's work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Skateboard Journal and Chaser magazine.