Roxie Johnson
Hyde Park, New York
An intuitive, intimate exploration of a world in constant change, decay and renewal / SMALL WORKS 🦋 HUGE IMPACT.
Message
Born and raised in a tiny suburb of NYC, I grew up a quirky, shy, pencil-thin young girl...
"In my formative years I learned to trust my curiosity and inner muse. Quickly, deconstructing and reassembling became a favorite childhood pastime. And full circle, this approach remains a trademark of the work I produce today.
As both fine artist and educator of the visual arts for 40+ years, my focus has been on building emotionally stable and safe environments for young creatives. When relocating to the Hudson River Valley in 1984, I managed to complete an MFA in Illustration with honors from Syracuse University. Career highlights include: grant recipient / National Endowment for the Humanities; 2 summer printmaking fellowships / Skidmore college; with additional studies conducted in Florence, Italy and Santa Fe, NM. Select awards have been received from both the Palm Spring Art Museum and NAWA (National Association of Women Artists), along with recognition in the Smithsonian Institute Archives of American Art. (Thank you, Jim Mullen!) Known widely in previous years for my unique approach to the etching process, I have exhibited in juried competitions nationally as well as in galleries of the Mid-Hudson and Metropolitan area."
Statement
Moving beyond impermanence: the beauty in vulnerability and the resilience of human spirit…
“Intrinsically method-based, my approach focuses on the nature of human consciousness and the intimate ongoing dialogue held with an ever-changing and disintegrating material world. Drawn in by the decomposition of our urban landscapes, I explore and celebrate our vulnerability and resilience as earthly co-inhabitants. I am in awe of the increasing unpredictability of our planet’s natural forces and visualize a deep reservoir of collective psyche rooted within the interconnection of all things animate and inanimate. This energy lures me inward, out of my comfort zone, and compels me to recognize the healing properties and infinite possibility contained within the creative process itself. And this humbles me.
By employing no exact plan or preliminary draft, I invite abandon and discovery to play a pivotal role in the genesis of each abstract composition. I think of it as an essential surrender to uncertainty, allowing for underlying structure, form and texture to emerge from the integration of the biomorphic with bits of man-made debris. My mind tends to connect and find significance in what appear to be totally disparate elements. And my infatuation with repetitive layering, mark-making, scraping and peeling away? An irreplaceable toolbox for unearthing a beauty and oddly unique order to life's impermanence and imperfection.
I love the feel of space...and how expansive moments of great depth are both concealed and revealed through the small and intimate."