mjohnsonartz

[mjohnsonartz]

Blanket (2023)

Handmade paper (cotton and pigmented abaca fibers) with pulp painted fringe. Made at Penland School of Craft.

In working with my personal archive, a lot of the memories and experiences I explore in my work relate to my early childhood. My baby blanket, made for me by my great aunt, was thrown away without my knowledge or consent when I got older. Its colors and patterns remain ingrained in my memory, a comfort object accompanying me through my early childhood surgeries and family traumas.

I liked the idea of using cotton paper to recreate the look and feel of the cotton blanket. Using a deckle box to form the sheet, there was an inevitable disruption to the colorful blanket pattern I was trying to recreate. It felt appropriate to the idea of an early memory that is increasingly difficult to grasp- a long lost comfort that I no longer know.

[mjohnsonartz]

2023

Handmade paper with hospital gown collage elements.

[mjohnsonartz]

Sorry (2023)

Handmade paper (kozo and abaca), with hospital gown and monotype inclusions. Made in Paper Studio at the Penland School of Craft.

The base sheet was made with a deckle box technique. The kozo sheet laid over the top was a double couched sheet but still ended up with a pretty big hole in it. "Sorry".

[mjohnsonartz]

Raindrops and Flowers/Sunshine and Flowers (2023)

Handmade paper (pigmented kozo and abaca fibers) with hospital gown inclusions. Made during a Summer '23 workshop at the Penland School of Craft while working as a Studio Assistant.

These sheets were formed using a large deckle box, a process in which one lines a mould and deckle with a plastic sheet and creates a sort of "bath" to dump a slurry of fibers into. The plastic sheet is then quickly pulled out, agitating the fibers as the water drains out from the screen. The results are unpredictable and hard to control but usually quite beautiful.

The workshop, taught by artist Kelly Taylor Mitchell, tasked us with exploring our personal archives through the process of hand papermaking. I brought a collection of hospital gowns that I accumulated over the years, hoping to transform my memories of being highly medicalized into something less painful. The natural beauty of Penland's mountains and wildflowers provided great comfort while making this work.

[mjohnsonartz]

Realms (2023)

Trace monotypes

[mjohnsonartz]

Sprites (2023)

Gelli plate monotypes

[mjohnsonartz]

Crying Angel (2021)

Water-based monotype

[mjohnsonartz]

Shy Angel (2021)

Water-based monotype

[mjohnsonartz]

Swimming (2021)

Water-soluble crayon

[mjohnsonartz]

Tear Catcher (2021)

Acrylic on unstretched canvas

[mjohnsonartz]

“The Patient” (2021)

Handmade paper, monotype, and found object installation

In the context of medicine, what does it mean to be born “different? How is the helpless body of the deformed, defective, or debilitated patient regarded by the doctor? Is it tragedy from the beginning? Is it the justification for a benevolent surgeon’s science experiments? Contending with questions about my own medical history, the Patient asks: what does it look like when your body isn’t your own? How does it feel?

Viewers were encouraged to enter past the gallery's glass partition and handle the folder of documents, which contained copies of medical records of consultations, physical exams, and surgical procedures that I experienced from ages 4 to 6. On the cover and nestled between the pages of documents are a series of monotypes responding to the events.

[mjohnsonartz]

BODY (2021)

Monotypes

[mjohnsonartz]

Browsing (2020)

Relief Print

[mjohnsonartz]

Sad Angels (2021)

Gelli plate and trace Monotype on decorative paper

Reflections on feeling big, out of place, vulnerable.

[mjohnsonartz]

SOMATICIZE/CATASTROPHIZE (2020)

Oil on Arches Paper

Large scale triptych reflecting on the mind/body connection.

[mjohnsonartz]

Embrace (2019)

Trace Monotype

[mjohnsonartz]

Feral Hog (2019)

9x12" Linocut

Thoughts on the crisis of the feral hog population in the American South, as it might relate to bigger questions of power and the state. Who is aggressor, who is victim?