The power of embodying new personas

barry johnson believes that when you fully immerse yourself in a new persona, you grow into a richer, better version of yourself. As a teenager inspired by superheroes, johnson embraced a new persona to help him confront a family tragedy. Today, he continues to embody new versions of himself to take on challenges and make drastic career shifts -– and encourages us to do the same. barry johnson is multidisciplinary artist whose work, which ranges from painting to filmmaking to installations, has appeared in more than 70 shows around the world. He is also a children’s book author and illustrator and in his free time he volunteers teaching art to all ages. He is known for constantly shifting the nature of his work. A self-taught artist, he grew up in Kansas and, after graduating with a Business Marketing degree, relocated to Seattle. He moved into the tech and consulting industries but became disillusioned with the lack of imagination in tech design requests. Johnson left the tech world to become a full time artist and has been making art for six years. Currently, he is working on opening a new show featuring a few temporary murals and has just finished writing a film that will begin shooting the summer of 2019. He is the recipient of an Edwin T. Pratt Scholarship for 2018-2019. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.