Joy Johnson

Joy Johnson: Guardian of the Wilderness

When:  Fri., Sept. 12 – Sun., Oct. 5, 2008
Jacquelin Pilar Contemporary Gallery
Conversation with the Artist:  Fri., Sept. 26, 7:30 pm
(Gallery Talk for Art Under the Stars)


The installation, “Guardian of the Wilderness,” exists as a culmination of Joy Johnson’s personal life journey, and more recently the 180 days endured while surviving treatment for cancer where the creative act of work gave reason to endure. This installation, representing the earth’s eternal promise of renewal, evolved directly from the earlier work Johnson completed as her contribution to the companion exhibition, Eleven Ways of Working: The Fresno Journal Project.

Believing that through the marking of time new dreams are born, Johnson has moved beyond personal crisis by addressing spirituality and by drawing upon her life experiences. Enriched by travel, Johnson’s art serves as an expressive interpretation of primitive cross-cultural images that have been incorporated into her own work. These images have given voice to a personal spirituality that the artist continues to seek in each of her installations. In this work, she has used alternative materials and found objects to express the common human hope for new beginnings.

Creating a field of white budding flowers, Johnson has expressed the eternal promise of springtime through repetition punctuated by the floor to ceiling form. As a personal expression of spirituality paired with the care of a skilled craftsman, the artist gives tribute to life affirming hope through the emerging form of a winged figure. Rising from this springtime field, the guardian figure represents the powerful spirit of hope reinforced by faith. Joy Johnson has created an installation conceptually melding elements expressing cross-cultural resurrection stories.