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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  

Click here to see Joanne Merrick Johnson's work.

In conjunction with Celebrate Erie on Saturday Aug 16 from 2 to 6 at Glass Growers Gallery 10 East Fifth Street nationally-known clay artist, Joanne Merrick Johnson, will demonstrate her sculpting skills.

She will demonstrate her skills by sculpting a wall relief of a Mountain Goat and a three dimensional human figure. Simultaneously, she will have an area where children can discover the art of clay stamping.

Joanne Merrick Johnson, an “Island Girl”  was born on Vancouver Island, in Victoria, BC, Canada.  She lived in Portland, Oregon most of her life, where she attended MHCC for Graphic Arts.  Joanne also lived in Northern California doing Commercial Art studies at Chabot College.  It was during the process of her studies that she got her first taste of Sculpture, taking an alternate course.

Over the years Joanne has shown and sold her artwork in some unusual places, such as, The Northern Mariana Islands, Micronesia, where artisans gather on Guam for their annual Micronesia Arts Festival, which is by Invitation only. People from as far away as Papua New Guinea and the Cook Islands would come to perform their native songs and dances at the Diamond Hotel and share their art works and crafts at the festival along with other islanders.  She has traveled Internationally to Hong Kong, Japan, Guyana, South America, Trinidad, and Barbados to name some of the more unusual places. But, she finds British Columbia and Alberta, Canada to be the most beautiful of sites and places she’s experienced so far. Her artwork has even found its place in New Zealand.

Having lived on Tinian Island, Micronesia, for 4 years, doing her art work, she gained many insights to different people and cultures.  Joanne showed at the Guam Festival of the Arts several years in a row, the Saipan Art Shows (the next island over), and was  awarded,  all expenses paid for the Cook island show through the Government of Tinian. While on Tinian she designed logos and letterhead for the Mayor’s office, Hofschneider’s Enterprises and Mr. Honeydew’s Toys and Gifts.. She sculpted a hula dancer for the women’s league to be used for a life size statue.

She then moved back to Victoria, B.C. Canada to live close to her Grandmother in her last years.  Joanne belonged to the Island Illustrators Guild  and the Sculptors Guild of Victoria, BC.  Each year there would be large shows presenting the work of the artists. During one show with the Island Illustrators’ she had  a design piece hung from the 4 story Post Office Building for the Commonwealth Olympic Games held in Victoria and Vancouver Island. This design was also used on a t-shirt sold during those olympics.

Joanne taught sculpture privately for many years in Canada and the US. In Canada she also taught and sold her sculpture from Potter’s Corner Gallery in downtown Victoria, where she enjoyed teaching her students and meeting her buyer’s. However, on one occasion, when  the owner was first opening the gallery to the public, (the alarms and cameras weren’t yet placed),  a couple came in who seemed to appreciate Joanne’s sculpture, a little too much. They walked off without rendering payment, for a piece of  her sculpture, called “Pondering Heaven’s Gate”.  Had the title card been placed and knowing the title, would they have absconded with the piece?  Good Question! We may never know.

Today and for the last eight years, she and her husband Randy, have resided here, in the Eastern part of the United States enjoying her art and studio; creating and teaching.  Joanne’s first art show in this area was a “solo” event, at the Octagon Art Gallery within the Patterson Library, Westfield, where she showed and sold an array of unique pieces of stone and ceramic. Joanne stays active in her art and shows having participation with  the Chautauqua, NY Artists’ Society, Corry, PA  Artists’ Guild, and the Warren Artists’ Guild and has done shows at the Peek‘n Peak Resort in Clymer, New York , with an upcoming show at the Wheelhouse,  Finley Lake, NY. Galleries who have shown &  sold Joanne’s work include, Elements, North East, PA, Something Unique, Sherman, NY, and most recently with, Glass Growers Gallery, Erie, PA.  She also sells and does commissions from her own studio/gallery Winds Of Art Studio, Clymer, NY.

Joanne teaches from  her studio and has also taught with the Dave Poulin Studio in Jamestown, NY.  She has had High School students into her studio for field trips & study, has worked with the Scouts, Home Schooled students and taught sculpture on a voluntary basis for Erie First Assembly of God Church, with their summer program.The Libraries and VBS are important parts of volunteering as well.

Ms. Johnson is multi faceted and enjoys music,  plays piano by ear, enjoys writing, dancing, performing drama and adventure. In the way of adventure, she enjoys traveling, meeting new people and learning about new cultures. Joanne has always been doing her art work, from the earliest years on and has her artwork in many parts of the world.

Sculpture is Joanne’s main artistic venture, but she enjoys graphite drawing, painting with airbrush, watercolor, acrylic, oils and silk screening. She also likes painting on silk, but when she got her hands into the clay and the forms seemed to have a life of its own, it narrowed down somewhat the avenue she was to take. There is a magical transformation that takes place when working with clay.

Graphic/Commercial art is a big part of Joanne’s art interests and is what she majored in. However, once she started her skills in sculpting, her direction drastically changed to the challenge of the medium. She prefers water based clay from the earth and using the techniques, the way the old masters sculpted. There are many new mediums today to sculpt with, which makes it a great deal less involved. Having used some of these other methods, such as wax, Polymer, and Plastalina  she still greatly enjoys the creative adventure in the steps needed to master, the end results in her pieces, from the mere clay of the earth. Being able to fire the piece and having a permanent “Original” is important to her. Not like other mediums used for sculpting, such as the Plastalina, an oil based clay, that never hardens and you must be concerned with the temperature it is kept at. A finished piece in these clays can melt like wax right off an armature, or become brittle and break  if cold. Using these methods, you must make a mold and have it poured.

Figurative Sculpture is her main interest, fashioned either in fine, white, clay, California Red or Seattle Terracotta. There are so many selections in clay and vary from area to area. Joanne has also carved in stone, a technique in which there is no turning back, subtracting instead of adding to the piece.

Joanne enjoys capturing the expressions of life in her pieces and finds the eyes most intriguing to create.  Joanne  wants to pass her knowledge on to those, who long to use their imaginations. She enjoys seeing the rewards that come from a process which began, with the earth and watching it transformed by its creator, the artist. The artist, whom was once created in the same manner, but  with the most important factor being, she says, is that we received the Breath of Life. “It is quite a spiritual circle in depth”.

Her goal when instructing a class is to inspire and encourage her students to experiment with their own style and feel for the clay. She likes to laugh and have fun with her students as they use their creativeness to grow. Quite often she tells her students starting a bust of a person, to be patient, “they ALL look like E.T. to begin with.”

From the Artist:

“My Sculpture is created with what lies beneath the flesh & bone & in essence becomes flesh of the heart. An extension and release of the hidden spirit, thoughts and ideas once held captive. Each piece hopefully, evokes the viewers’ spirit, to have a feeling, remembrance or new thought about the visual dimension that is before them. Each piece has it’s own story, to me, as well as to others.”JMJ                                                                                                           

About the Process:

Many, many hours goes into each piece as I let it develop, change, grow until I can no longer feel justified to push it, as it has become what it will. Most people have no idea what goes into creating a sculpture. After long hours working the clay, when you get the piece finished, and it is leather hard, you must cut it into pieces. Without doing this seemingly destructive maneuver, you could not fire your sculpture for permanence of any kind. If the clay is too thick it will crack or explode in the kiln.

Once the original is cut up, you must hallow it out, making sure not to cut through the sides, when you do; and it will happen from time to time, you must reconstruct that area skillfully so that it will fire properly. When it is completely hallowed out you need to begin to place it back together, making sure all of the joined areas have been well scored and are properly repaired, as it originally was. You don’t want to have any air pockets, bubbles or areas that were not joined properly or it may explode when fired. Drying is another important point. You must thoroughly let it dry before firing or you may have moisture trapped in areas, which will cause it to explode as well. The drying process must be consistent throughout the piece, the fingers can not be allowed to dry faster than the arm, etc.  It must be well controlled and dried slowly and evenly. A painting may take weeks, a sculpture, months.

It is an experience to enjoy and a skill to acquire. When you actually create something from mere clay, it is an awesome experience, which, is why I love to teach Sculpting in my studio. I enjoy seeing the rewards that come from a process which began with the earth and seeing the students take control of it and master it.   

You can make a mold right from the leather-hard clay with Plaster of Paris but these can be quite difficult to master as it may take several sections to create the mold. If you have undercuts where the plaster would hang up, you will have great difficulty trying to release the rigid mold unless there is a good deal of accurate planning to figure out how to duplicate the detail in your piece and still have the mold release. I prefer to use a flexible rubber mold if I am to duplicate at all.

As with anything worthwhile doing, it takes time to learn the process. But, once you have, you can create any image you want. Only your imagination can hold you back. Now, I invite you to come and join me in this new adventure.

The public is encouraged to come and meet her and visit the gallery during the Erie festivities.

During Celebrate Erie, Glass Growers Gallery will extend its hours to the following: Friday and Saturday 10 to 8 and Sunday 12 to 6.