Roy Johnson began his journey in art when he was only nine years old. At the time, he was living in his home country of Honduras.
“I remember the very first drawing that I did was the wheel of an old truck, I decided to draw that and that’s exactly how it started, with a little small drawing,” Johnson said.
More than two decades later he’s creating masterpieces in oil paint that can be found on display inside his business ViceRoy Artworkz located at Northwoods Mall in Peoria. When you walk inside you’ll see artwork ranging from Japanese to Afrocentric to landscape to animals.
“I think one of the concepts for me was being able to get my art out there to people who haven’t seen my art because I kept my art to myself for a very long time and I just told myself it’s time to get your art out there,” he said.
The gallery features a range of high-quality artwork from Johnson himself and other local artists. Some of those artists include Khalid, Alex Volk, Joni Hendon Anderson and Micah Davis.
“It feels great because I can have a space to share their art and my art together and it’s a really cool thing to combine everybody’s artwork so that we can have a very diverse collection of art,” Johnson said.
While majority of the artwork is available for sale, Johnson said he wants his space to be a place people can come, relax and enjoy the art.
“The beautiful thing about art is I’ve been able to express myself in many ways that I can’t express myself in regular life. I’ve been able to enter different worlds, you know like fantasy, wildlife, portraiture and it’s just a different way of expressing yourself,” Johnson said.
Johnson opened ViceRoy Artworkz in Northwoods Mall two years ago on the lower level and moved to the upper level mid last year.
