#1033 + 11 September 2001 + re-ACT + ’11 SEPTEMBER 2001′ Catherine L. Johnson 2001 + 11 September 2021

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I had worked on Wall Street for six years – either walking or taking the subway to the WTC.  Watching, watching, watching that day and all the days later – a fleeting image  of my dear friend, artist Donna Dennis who lived on Duane Street in Tribeca  appeared on the TV.

 Donna was handing out bottles of water. Of course.

 

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11 SEPTEMBER 2001    Catherine L. Johnson    2001

 

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Four original drawings.

Each drawing: 40″H x 24″W

 

11 September 2001

Four works on paper created during the week of 11 September 2001. Four original works representing the four cardinal directions, collages of roses : smoke-shattered images made whole.

The series was placed in several ecumenical locations in memorial.

The four pieces were created immediately in the week/wake of our nation’s tragedy of devastation and horror in the backyard of Harold/Esther Stassen’s Sunfish Lake, MN home.

The Wayzata Community Church, Wayzata, Minnesota, installed my art for an ecumenical memorial service on the first anniversary.

I called the ministers at WCC church in July 2002 asking if they thought of offering an ecumenical memorial service marking the first anniversary of 9/11 and I had created  four original works immediately as my way of coping and transforming the terror.

We agreed to a face to face appointment. I knew they had to experience the four works.

My proposal was for a high ceremony of remembrance- and the work would be installed in the colonnade at the 4 cardinal directions high above eye level and each would shrouded by drapes of black veil that would fall onto the floor. Haunting. I know trauma sears the nervous system and scars the bone and heart. I know healing occurs in communion with others – sacred listening and intimate acknowledgement which slowly draws out the embedded dark energy. A sacred process of grace love.

The following day, Rev. Bob Stout called me and stated WCC would host an ecumenical service on 11 September 2002 and my work would be a visual centerpiece and a ‘performer’ in the service of remembrance and healing.

I was requested to walk in the processional with the Police Dept., the Fire Dept., and the city and state officials – all the ministers were involved.

Rev. Bob Stout calls me on 11 September 2002 as the first memorial service was occurring at Ground Zero. He asked me if  was watching the broadcast. Yes, I replied. He says in a quiet halting voice: ‘the color of the roses given to the survivors are the SAME color as the roses In your work and the wind is pulling up the debris of bone/ash creating a spiral upward as in your work…’ Artists as conduit, a divining rod, an instrument. Art as oracle, a balm.

On the eve of 11 September 2002, the Wayzata Community Church’s sanctuary was shoulder-to-shoulder seated on the pews and standing.

At the end of the solemn hour long service, the four ministers led the congregation out into the spacious colonnade where my four original works were shrouded in black veil set high. Complete silence as the congregation filled the spacious colonnade. 

Once everyone entered and had stilled, Rev. Bob Stout nodded. This gesture signaled to the other three ministers to pull down the black veils and the images of roses seemed to rush and rise upward as the black veil fell to the ground. A year of mourning had been marked. 

I created 3000 ribbons that appeared as wing-breaths in the days and weeks following 9/11. Nine steps was the”mantra”- the steps to create each ribbon- like the prayers in the Kaddish to commend the spirit to Heaven. Nine is a number that has symbolic resonance as well.

I created ribbons every night at the Dakota Jazz Club with my dearest friend, Jane Matteson for: fire departments, hospital ERs, bereft families, Minnesota Orchestra musicians and conductor (my brother Bill and I met for concerts – Elgar’s Nimrod was offered and, at the intermission, I  brought a basket of my ribbons for the musicians and Osmo Vänskä…when the musicians and Vänskä  re-entered the stage, each wore a ribbon).

My first ‘actions’ were initiated at the South YMCA where I was a water fitness and weight training instructor. I set up a table for families at the South YMCA – and each person created one step of the nine steps and, once completed passed it to the person sitting next to them – until completion. The ‘actions’ were soothing and transformed fear into a productive gesture. Families, extended families, participated: a positive action to quiet overwhelming fear ans helplessness. Community actions binds the wounds – together as one, not alone.

 

The shape of the ribbons evolved

and

became to look more like wings

toward the denouement of my offering.

 

Please note:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/11-september-2001-11-september-2011/

https://catherineljohnson.art/2021/02/09/11september2001-a-cantata-for-healing/

 

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#1032 + FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made… + PRECIOUS

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Stencil of my hand print – each created for

my Aunt Anne + my Uncle Bob,

my late Mother’s older/only sister and younger/only brother.

IDK if/when I will have a live encounter with either of them again.

 I created and sent a red outline on my hand to my beloved younger

cousin Connie as she was dying.

Red was her favorite color.

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The outline of my hand print will be the offer of my presence

– the sacred energy of:

I AM HERE for/with YOU.

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A hand print found in Indonesia and believed to be at least 39,900 years old

Photo: Kinez Riza via Nature

 

 

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9 September 2021 check up

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 In the book of Psalms,

David writes in chapter 139 verses 13 and 14:

“for it was You who created my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I will praise You because I have been fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Fearfully when translated from the Hebrew means with great reverence,

heart-felt interest, and with respect.

Wonderfully when translated from the Hebrew means unique and set apart.

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FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2021/07/24/1022-24-july-2021-91f%f0%9f%8c%9e-ipromisetotell-re-set-ad-just-ad-apt-i-see-you-i-am-here/

 

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9 September 2021 check up

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‘youDEARPRECIOUS’ #2           Catherine L. Johnson   2021

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For further information on the work above, please click on link below:

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2021/06/13/1014-udeerpresh-uhs-youdearprecious-2021-catherine-l-johnson-8-original-works/

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#1031 + BLIND WOKE BLIND #1/ #2/ #3/ #4 2001 Catherine L. Johnson + you think you know because you do not + ADVANTAGE BLINDNESS

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BLIND WOKE BLIND

#1/ #2/ #3/ #4

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2001

Catherine L. Johnson

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18″ H x 13.75″ W

Mixed media:

layers of custom color paint, graphite, and silver metallic pencil on heavyweight archival board

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BLIND WOKE BLIND #1      Catherine L. Johnson  2021

 

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BLIND WOKE BLIND #2      Catherine L. Johnson  2021

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BLIND WOKE BLIND #3      Catherine L. Johnson  2021

 

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BLIND WOKE BLIND #4      Catherine L. Johnson  2021

 

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you think you know because you do not

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there is choosing/choice in navigating the circumstances in one’s story

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one’s story may be a testament of their resilience in overcoming

and

the remarkable entrance of others’ who can SEE one

and

the original blessing strength of faith RADICAL HOPE authentic love

 

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one does not choose nor have choice

of what is congenital at birth

and

of what is the contemporaneous society’s value system

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you become trustworthy by the quality/content

of your sincere questions to know another

– the sacred ‘gardening’

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telling another you know their choices before the ‘gardening’ is an affront

PERIOD.

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you think you know because you do not

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Everyone and every thing is created in the “image of God.”

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New York Times

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advantage blindness

Do You Have “Advantage Blindness”?

https://hbr.org/2018/04/do-you-have-advantage-blindness

Our research on speaking truth to power shows there is often a blind spot among the powerful, preventing them from seeing their impact on the less powerful. We call this advantage blindness. When you have advantage blindness, you don’t feel privileged. You don’t notice a life of special treatment; it’s just normal. You don’t think about your physical safety most of the time; you don’t worry about holding hands with your partner in public; when you get angry, no one asks you if it’s because of your hormones; and people in power generally look like you.

 

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A history of “wokeness”

https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy

“Jesus said, ‘Not everyone who says to me,

“Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven.’

Not everyone who says, ‘Woke, woke,’

is actually committed to racial justice.”

 

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#1030 + Questlove’s documentary: “Summer of Soul (…or When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)” + The Harlem Cultural Festival 1969

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The Harlem Cultural Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Cultural_Festival

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Soul

1969

Mount Morris Park

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SUMMER OF SOUL

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson presents a powerful and transporting documentary—part music film, part historical record created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park). The footage was never seen and largely forgotten–until now. SUMMER OF SOUL shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being and stands as a testament to the healing power of music during times of unrest, both past and present. The feature includes never-before-seen concert performances by Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & the Family Stone, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, The 5th Dimension and more.

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Remarkable.

Powerful.

A MUST experience!

The documentary reveals bejeweled prisms of reality lived concurrently with Woodstock, a reality which was deleted by the dominant culture. Two disconnected rivers of life –  distinct waters that taste/see/feel as in two cultures.

Questlove’s documentary is the kiss that revives a crypt of I WISH I KNEW freedom – a poignant HALLELUJAH gospel of living ALIVE!!!!! Beautiful!

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Questlove

Revives

‘Black Woodstock’

In

‘Summer Of Soul‘

Documentary

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/01/1033238644/questlove-revives-black-woodstock-in-summer-of-soul-documentary

 

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I’m Terry Gross.

My guest, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, has made his directorial debut with the new documentary “Summer Of Soul.” Questlove co-founded The Roots, which is, among other things, the house band for “The Tonight Show,” where Questlove serves as the music director. He describes his new film as his chance to restore history.

The historic-but-forgotten event the film documents is the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a series of six concerts held in Harlem’s Mount Morris Park, which is now called Marcus Garvey Park. It was free and open to the public. And tens of thousands of people attended, mostly Black and brown. The roster of performers representing different strains of Black and Latino music included Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The 5th Dimension, The Staple Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Ray Barretto, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln. The festival was one year after the assassination of Martin Luther King, during the period of the Black Power movement.

The concerts spanned from June 29 to August 24, overlapping with both the Woodstock Festival and the first moonwalk. About 40 hours of performances were recorded on video by Hal Tulchin. A couple of hours were shown on local TV in New York. But Tulchin was unable to produce it into a film or TV series in spite of trying for years to attract funders. The tape sat in his basement for about 50 years.

Just before his death, he signed over the rights to two producers, who brought on Questlove to turn it into the film that is now “Summer Of Soul.” Questlove wrote about the period in Black music just after the festival in his book about “Soul Train.” He has a new book that will be published in the fall called “Music Is History,” focusing on 1971 to the present.

Questlove, welcome back to FRESH AIR. Congratulations on the film.

QUESTLOVE: Thank you….

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IWISHIKNEW    Catherine L. Johnson  2011

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IWISHIKNEW

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/iwishiknew-2011-catherine-l-johnson-mindless-menace-of-violence-robert-f-kennedy-5-april-1968-humanly-possible-the-empathy-exhibition/ 

2011

Catherine L. Johnson

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#1029 + Hurricane Katrina 2005 + Pine Tree: HOPE 2005 Catherine L. Johnson + “…a prayer to / for…” + Hurricane Ida 2021

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Pine Tree: HOPE           Catherine L. Johnson  2005

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In the week following

the physical/psychic horror and inhumanity of

Hurricane Katrina.

I created the Pine Tree: HOPE series

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/early-in-the-morning-on-29-august-29-2005-hurricane-katrina-struck-the-gulf-coast-of-the-united-states-pine-tree-hope-2005-catherine-l-johnson-allen-toussaints-the-bright-mississippi/

as a luminous prayer for / to

hold up to the light

the survivors

in that time of

deafening despair + terror.  

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The work calls out Martin Buber’s

distinction

between

the I-Thou relationship

versus

the I-It relationship.

The sacred Thou in all.

Not we v. the other.

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The

practice

of the

Golden Rule

is

empathy / respect.

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I hold up to the light

ALL whose lives are / were

ransacked

by

Hurricane Ida.

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#1028 + ‘WE HAVE WINGS’ + Tokyo 2020 Paralympics + Beauty IS + CHOICE / CHOOSING WINGS + ‘Ginkgo WINGS: RISERISEIRISEWEWILLRISERISE’ 2014 Catherine L. Johnson

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WE HAVE WINGS

Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/paralympics/

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The symbol of the Paralympic Games

is composed of three

“agitos”,

colored red, blue, and green,

encircling a single point,

on a white field.

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The

agito

(“I move” in Latin)

is a

symbol of movement

in the shape of an asymmetrical crescent.

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The Tokyo Paralympic Games

Have The Most Athletes

  and

The Most Women in HerHistory

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/24/1030606628/the-tokyo-paralympic-games-have-the-most-athletes-and-the-most-women-in-history

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Tatyana McFadden, center, and Jenna Fesemyer of the United States compete in the Women’s 5000 Meter Run T53/54 Wheelchair final during the 2021 U.S. Paralympic Trials at Breck High School on June 18, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

McFadden has won 17 Paralympic medals and is looking to pick up more in Tokyo.

David Berding/Getty Images

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The Tokyo Paralympics Are Here.

These Are Some Of The Sports

and

Athletes To Watch

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/24/1030632463/tokyo-paralympic-sports-athletes-to-watch

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(Courtesy of Lucía Montenegro)

 

Lucía Montenegro, Argentina

When it comes to disability rights, wheelchair racer Lucía Montenegro won’t stay in her lane. The 20-year-old Argentinian uses her athleticism to advocate for change. She speaks out about lack of transparency in para-sport and the discrimination she’s faced from her school.

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(Courtesy of Sara Vargas)

 

Sara Vargas, Colombia

There’s a lot 13-year-old Sara Vargas likes about being a champion para-swimmer: winning medals, beating out her rivals, representing her home country. But there’s no accolade that beats being in the water.

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(Courtesy of Aya Ayman)

 

Aya Ayman, Egypt

As the first and youngest Egyptian, African and Arabian female athlete to get a world para-swimming medal, Aya Ayman balances studying at university with competing at world championships. She shares with us why she prioritises her education alongside her swimming career.

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(Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

United States

Melissa Stockwell:

From wounded soldier to Paralympian

In April 2004, Melissa Stockwell became the first U.S. woman to lose a limb in active combat when an IED exploded during her daily convoy in Baghdad, Iraq. She has since gone on to become a two-time Paralympian, culminating in a bronze medal in Paratriathlon at Rio 2016. And it all started with a choice…

https://olympics.com/tokyo-2020/en/paralympics/news/melissa-stockwell-from-wounded-soldier-to-paralympian

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Anastasia Pagonis sets WR for U.S.’ first Paralympic GOLD!

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Mallory Weggemann shines in SM7 200mIM final and captures GOLD!

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Jessica Long of Team USA wins fourth straight 200m IM GOLD!

 

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Allysa Seely defends triathlon GOLD

with heroic late push Danz is SILVER

 

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Scaroni breaks from pack, gets her 1st GOLD in 5000m;

McFadden gets BRONZE!

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Gia Pergolini, 17, smashes own 100m backstroke WR to win gold

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GinkgoWINGS:RISERISEIRISEWEWILLRISERISE        Catherine L. Johnson  2014

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GinkgoWINGS:

RISERISEIRISEWEWILLRISERISE

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/ginkgo-wings-portfolio-2013-2014-ginkgo-wings-riseriseirisewewillriserise-2014-ginkgo-symbol-of-hope-tenacity-profound-endurance-maria-callas-sempre-libera-la-traviata/

2014

CATHERINE L. JOHNSON

Mixed Media on Board

16″ H x 10.5″ W

2014

 

 

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One aspect of my story

Congenital dysplasia of multiple joints: both hips, right knee, and both feet.

57 reconstructive surgeries on hands, arm, nose, hip, knee, feet.

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CHOICE:

I HAVE WINGS.

I CHOSE WINGS.

 

I ‘standbike’ cannot sit on bike seat

(total hip and knee reconstruction – restricted flexion),

kayak upstream on the Mississippi River

(STRONG arms),

swim

(YMCA certified water/ weight/ elastic band and fitness ball

fitness instructor after my my 1st hip reconstruction in 1999),

cross country ski,

and…

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#1027 + 24 August 1960 + RICHARD HAROLD JOHNSON + The body knows. + The body remembers.

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Blake,

On this date: 24 August 1960, our Daddy was killed in car accident, decapitated, as his car crashed into a bridge near St. Cloud. He fell asleep while driving home to us.

Your 2nd birthday was in 4 days – fourth born and second son.

The story and arc of our Mom and Daddy’s marriage was only 10 years. They LOVED each other. Authentic love has a radiant energy, vibrancy. I felt it: low swinging amplitude, a safe beautiful hum. The body knows: truth’s divining rod.

Daddy had his first manic episode and he was hospitalized earlier that spring.

I have a small clay sculpture of a dog, glazed the darkest brown, he created as a boy. His hands were eloquent and elegant, a pianist’s hands. Lynne, Bill and you wear his hands. I wear his promise. My body remembers his touch, his caress, as he held me his second born and second daughter whose lower body was shut still in heavy casts. He knew how to hold me with protective tenderness. His tenderness is embedded in me, my life. My body remembers.

We, his survivors, would always ‘feel’ the date when his soul violently evacuated his body. Our bodies remembered. My body remembers today the force of his soul’s escape. He lived 32 years.

I knew that Daddy had died.

Lynne, Bill and I were sleeping over at the home of our former neighbors, dear friends of our parents.

Both of my legs were in heavy plaster casts and I carried my body with wood crutches.

I was lying down on the carpeted living room floor.

Our brother Bill was asleep on the navy blue tweed sectional sofa next to and above me.

I woke him up suddenly when I knew and told 4-year-old Bill: “Billy, Daddy died!”

I sensed it.

My body knew.

Immediately, I knew.

We are Daddy’s hope and future as are your children: George, Jessica and Max, our parents, Richard and Doris’ only grandchildren, my nephews and niece.

I kept the JOHNSON name because I knew he loved me unconditionally with the expanse of an open blue sky and unseen universes. He fought hard for my welfare, my light, my breath, and my wings: my life. As Lynne, Bill, and you changed your name. I would not. I could not.

The body knows.

The body remembers.

 

My body knows.

My body remembers.

 

Daddy loved you.

Daddy loves you.

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My photograph. Memorial Day 2015. Daddy’s sons, my brothers: Bill (left) and Blake.

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#1026 + OLD VERSION + ‘RE-BRANDED’ + 2001 and 2021 + ACTIONS disclose TRUTH + ‘HALO: THE PRAYER WHEEL’

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(Michael de Adder/The Washington Post)

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21 AUGUST 2021

 

AUGUST 2001

 

Members of the Taliban pass onlookers during a military parade as part of celebrations to mark the 72nd anniversary of the country’s independence from Britain in Kabul, August 2001. The independence day ceremony was attended by senior Taliban officials and some leaders of Pakistani religious parties who support the hardline Islamic movement. REUTERS/Files

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The Post’s View

 

Opinion by the

 

Editorial Board

In Kabul,

President Biden must match his lofty goals with great capability

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/21/kabul-president-biden-must-match-his-lofty-goals-with-great-capability/

PLEASE NOTE THE READERS’ COMMENTS!

Example:

The Board is engaging in useless sniping at the rescue effort. Wake-up to the reality that, in this unstable situation, Biden must not reveal all the cards up his sleeve. Everything his government says is being studied by the various factions within the Taliban. Pulling this off requires sophisticated judgement and considerable guile. Just stick to supporting the effort. Your analysis can wait until the operation is over.

 

 

Trump negotiated the withdrawal by a date certain, May2021, with the Islamic Terrorists; so the military, , had plenty of notice ahead of time to prepare for an orderly evacuation. President Biden even extended the withdrawal deadline that Trump had committed to with the Taliban. Was President Biden supposed to personally rescue all the refugees and Americans all by himself? Even Churchill did not evacuate all the troops from Dunkirk by himself.

It was another clear exposure of about how incompetent our military leadership is and has been for a very long time.

What do you suppose Trump striking a peace deal with The Taliban, in exchange for he agreeing to pull all our Troops out of there by May 2021, did to the morale of those Afghans we trained and armed?

 

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I know GOLD STAR families, and, perhaps, you do to…

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HALO: THE PRAYER WHEEL  #3     Catherine L. Johnson  2003

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HALO: THE PRAYER WHEEL

series

The catalyst of the series was the synchronicity of two profound events:
the dying of my beloved friend, Jane Matteson, with her soul turning to heaven and America’s invasion of Iraq.

 

Please click on the link below for further information:

https://catherineljohnson.art/2021/02/25/halo-the-prayer-wheel-2003/

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AMERICA 

WE HAVE A MORAL OBLIGATION / RESPONSIBILITY

TO EXECUTE A SAFE/ SOUND EVACUATION

OF

ALL OF OUR ALLIES IN AFGHANISTAN.

 

 

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As we all know:

there were NO weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq.

 

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#1025 + BLANK + PAPER + CROWN + CIRCLE + 2021 + Catherine L. Johnson

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I use symbols, an object or/and an idea, that represents something of deeper meaning.

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‘PAPER: WEAR YOUR CROWN ‘

original

mixed media work  17″ H x 14″ W

2021

Catherine L. Johnson

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PAPER: WEAR YOUR CROWN                Catherine L. Johnson   2021

 

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The ‘blank page’ is a foundational move.

The blank piece of paper is a symbol of all that is to be:

 to be written /  to be experienced / to be loved.

It is reflective of everything that can be when starting anew.

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I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.
Whisper of running streams, and winter lightning.
The wild thyme unseen and the wild strawberry,
The laughter in the garden, echoed ecstasy
Not lost, but requiring, pointing to the agony
Of death and birth.

T. S. Eliot, East Coker

 

 

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…we believe social leadership

is crafted by each one of us in our own way,

a crown made of paper

in this sense is worth far more

than any crown made of gold and jewels.

https://www.paper-crown.org/whats-behind-our-name

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Circle

“What we call the beginning is often the end.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from.”

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The Little Gidding

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What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea’s throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration. A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter’s afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree

Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always–
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

The Little Gidding is the last of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.

 

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‘WILL: FLY AWAY ‘

#1/ #2/ #3/ #4/ #5/ #5/ #6/ #7/ #8/ #9

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2021/05/04/1002-will-fly-away-2021-catherine-l-johnson/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2021/05/17/1006-will-fly-away-19-2021-catherine-l-johnson-fossil-spine-fly/

original mixed media works

2021

Catherine L. Johnson

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WILL: FLY AWAY #4         Catherine L. Johnson   2021

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‘TAKE THE CROWN’

#1/ #2/ #3/ #4/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2021/03/04/991-4-march-take-the-crown-2021-catherine-l-johnson-learning-to-see-quidquid-recipitur-ad-modum-recipientis-recipitur/

 

2021

Catherine L. Johnson

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TAKETHECROWN #2                                Catherine L. Johnson   2021

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DEVASTATING: The Afghanistan withdrawal

America, we have a moral obligation to LEAD an evacuation NOT a massacre.

BETRAYAL.

Read about the actions of the British citizens: the Dunkirk evacuation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_evacuation

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#1024 + ‘THE LIGHT IS HERE #1/ #2/ #3’ 2021 Catherine L. Johnson + “…close to your heart…”

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‘THE LIGHT IS HERE’

#1/ #2/ #3′

 

2021

Catherine L. Johnson

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Three original works

Each measures: 14″H x 17″W

Mixed media:

color – black on white paint

line – graphite, metallic silver pencil + crayon

paper – archival heavyweight kraft 

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THE LIGHT IS HERE #1    Catherine L. Johnson  2021

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THE LIGHT IS HERE #2    Catherine L. Johnson  2021

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THE LIGHT IS HERE #3    Catherine L. Johnson  2021

 

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Chandelier Drawings    Catherine L. Johnson  2006

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https://catherineljohnson.art/2021/02/17/the-chandelier-drawings-2006/

https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/the-chandelier-drawings-you-can-cage-the-singer-but-not-the-song-this-is-dedicated-to-all-who-have-been-shut-down-andor-shut-out-you-sing-you-sing-you-sing-you-sing-you-sing-you-sing/

 

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“Don’t grab hurtful comments and pull them close to you by rereading them and ruminating on them. Don’t play with them by rehearsing your badass comeback. And whatever you do, don’t pull hatefulness close to your heart.

Let what’s unproductive and hurtful drop at the feet of your unarmored self. And no matter how much your self-doubt wants to scoop up the criticism and snuggle with the negativity so it can confirm its worst fears, or how eager the shame gremlins are to use the hurt to fortify your armor, take a deep breath and find the strength to leave what’s mean-spirited on the ground. You don’t even need to stomp it or kick it away.

Cruelty is cheap, easy, and chickenshit. It doesn’t deserve your energy or engagement. Just step over the comments and keep daring, always remembering that armor is too heavy a price to pay to engage with cheap-seat feedback.”

  Brené Brown, Dare to Lead

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👑💐🚀💞Above sent by true blue dear friend Carrie💞🚀💐👑

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