US Embassy celebrates the ties that bind

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

THE US Embassy in Kingston last week launched the first in a series of cultural events to help Jamaica celebrates its Golden Jubilee. 'Celebrating the Ties that Bind: 50 Years of Friendship', is a 24-piece exhibition displaying American artist and civil rights activist Johnny P Johnson.

The exhibition, which opened on January 13 at the Mutual Life Gallery, will continue to run until Martin Luther King Day on January 16 of next year.

Ambassador Pamela E Bridgewater, the US ambassador to Jamaica, and a former student of the artist expressed her enthusiasm about having Johnson participate in the celebration. In her remarks in the gallery booklet, she said that Johnny Johnson's work beautifully reinforce the linkages between the people of Jamaica and the United States of America and our many commonalities.

He enjoys the challenge of forcing the viewer to look at his work from many different perspectives, and makes an effort to express the essence of the subject without unnecessary details... his artistic references to the continent of Africa can symbolise lost freedom, the reclamation of a culture "and the freedom to reconnect, to remember and be freed from the tragedy of the past. He seamlessly weaves these themes into his work, allowing you to celebrate the past with a positive outlook for the present and the future".

Johnson, who describes his art as "a response to life" led a guided tour of his exhibition on Martin Luther King Day, last Monday. Students from Mona High School, Donald Quarrie High School, Old Harbour High School, Morant Bay High School and Jamaica College came out, accompanied by their art teachers to experience the vibrant display and jovial artist first hand.

As an artist, Johnson explained his use of colour and texture: vibrant acrylics, sand, sawdust, modelling paste, palette knives, brushes and even thick slabs of paint to express himself; saying that he wants "the viewer to relate to it in his or her own way" but "other times the creative process is as important as the work itself".

But as a social activist and an advocate for change, he expressed what each piece truly represented, and encouraged the students to always move forward, saying:

"You have to persevere, you have to feel good about yourself, and you have to ignore the people who are discouraging you. You have to be willing to make some sacrifices to achieve what you want. There are people who will discriminate against you because you are male or female or because of the colour of your skin, and what you have to do is feel strong enough inside to continue. You can't make people like your work, but sometimes your work can influence people."

A 76-year-old art veteran, Johnson has a bachelor's of art education degree from Virginia State University, and a Master's of Fine Arts degree from Howard University. He has spent the majority of his life teaching art at the high school level in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where, incidentally he was the "first black man" in several institutions and organisations.

Johnson was and still is involved in the civil rights movement, and is a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a very active board member of the regional Council on Human Relations. His paintings have been exhibited as collections of the US State Department's Art in Embassies programme in France, Benin, Eritrea and Ghana, but this is his first public exhibition of art in Jamaica.

— Kristen Laing & Melaine Warren

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US Embassy celebrates the ties that bind