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Sculpture » Robert Francis Johnson
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Robert Francis Johnson - Artist Statement My work reflects the timeless spiritual mysteries suggested by Stonehenge and other megalithic formations. The work also explores subtle changes in our models of masculinity and femininity, using mindful sensuality to find deeper meanings. Interrelationships are central to much of how I view the world. I feel much of our culture is operating out of the duality and mechanistic thinking of Descartes and Newton, while current beliefs in physics suggest a worldview of interconnection and mystery. I feel it is the artist's work to bring this magic and paradox to enchant us and help us see the profound in the simplicity of everyday objects: wood, stone, earth. "I love the dark mysteries of the night where there are no experts to steal our sight." Poems are often part of my sculptural process, and I frequently use them as titles. Groupings and assemblages reflect my interest in learning more about relationships, groups and communities. "Feeling alone is a trick we play on ourselves when we're afraid." I have recently been working in Cob, an earthen material used to build homes in England and Wales. Mixing this material with one's feet is truly a religious experience. Earth is a powerful material to help us reconnect to nature in the midst of an often disconnected, technological world. By working with such a common material, I hope to help us integrate art into our daily lives so we can begin to create a world we want to live in. I have begun a series in Cob called "Earth Prayers for World Peace," which are site-specific community monuments for healing the Earth and at the same time ourselves. The first "earth Prayer" was completed on Whidbey Island, Washington. It is called "Spirit of the Valley: An Earth Prayer for Peace" (7-1/2 ft. by 4ft. by 4 ft.). Thirty-six people, ranging in age from 4 to 83, helped construct the piece as well as embed sacred objects in it as it was drying (stories, seeds, feathers, poems, prayers, etc.). Constructing such a monument together is a powerful process of community building, having fun, healing the Earth and ourselves, and reawakening for us all the power and the beauty of Earth. Since the first "Earth Prayer" created in 1997, we have created approximately 25 Earthprayers for World Peace across the western United States; an archway and benches at a high school, a Hopi Labyrinth in a park in Santa Fe, a large Earth Mother that children can sit in for the Children's Museum, and recently "La Pachamama," a figurative life-size Earth Mother constructed primarily by women at Ghost Ranch Conference Center. At the Peace Camp in Valencia, NM this summer we created two healing works with girls from Israel and Palestine. Often images from my smaller "Touchstones" ceramic images are used for the community collaborative Earth Art; at other times the images seem to spring from the Earth herself - in a recent project for a community playhouse: a turtle, a dragon and a mermaid. |
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