THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO
2013
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON
EXODUSIMFREEATLASTIAINTGOINGBACKIMFREE CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 2013
EXODUSIMFREEATLASTIAINTGOINGBACKIMFREE detail CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 2013
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EXODUSIMFREEATLASTIAINTGOINGBACKIMFREE
PAINTING #15 + LAST PIECE IN THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO
MEASURES 16″ H x 32 ” W
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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“I Have A Dream”
28 August 1963
REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING’S HISTORICAL
“I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH
CAME FROM HIS HEART
-NOT FROM NOTES.
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Toward the end of its delivery, internationally renown gospel singer Mahalia Jackson
shouted to King from the crowd,
“Tell them about the dream, Martin.”
King stopped delivering his prepared speech
and
started
“preaching”,
punctuating his points with
“I have a dream.”
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Any dominant culture in a society
has shaped optics
that sees the world
exclusively
according to
THEIR values + THEIR needs
-which are then translated into external structures:
systems, institutions, consciousness,
semiotics and laws
that upholds a specific
crystallized
worldview.
And, then there is the “other”,
the outside, the foreign, the feared,
that does not resonate
with the dominant culture’s optics.
The “other” is deemed invisible; less than, aberrant; threatening, etc.
A dynamic is established to keep the “other” blind, begging and blamed.
The “other” can be in multiples in a society,
yet,
their presence is cancelled.
WHITEWASHED.
The shaped optics are rigid
and
are held with a tight, death grip
-blindly, gripping
because of the terror of dissolution
of the withstanding power matrix
-the signifier identity of a dominant culture.
No dialogue.
No empathy.
No courage.
No invitation to the table,
welcoming and praising
of how God’s gifts
are shaped in a wide + deep spectrum
of diverse blooms.
A dominant culture sees their optics and practices as right,
and
cannot empathize with the “other”.
There is no incentive/motivation/purpose
to understand,
participate
and
acknowledge
the reality of the “other”.
Losing control is a visceral FEAR of a dominant culture
and
judgement of the “other”
is a practice of differentiating the “other”
that protects the exclusivity/privilege
upheld by the the dominant culture.
The dominant culture defines normal.
CRITICAL DISCOURSE
What are the VALUES of the dominant culture?
Who does the dominant culture uphold?
A dominant culture can be entangled truths, compromised truths,
lies that when arbitrary and agreed upon a group of people can gain momentum,
a centrifugal force, that binds the people together tighter and tighter.
Once bound, it takes great courage of a single individual to step out and UP
to question the veracity, explore the veracity and break free.
The dominant culture does not have to be the majority of a population.
The shaped optics are a contortion/distortion
that becomes imprinted
in the heart and spine of the individual
and
the society as whole.
The practice of the other “wishing” they had the bluest eye;
did not limp; did not live in a chair;
did not wear the color of skin they were born in
sows the cruel seeds of inhumanity.
The dominant culture steals freedom of one’s birthright:
breath.
Yahweh.
Inhale.
Exhale.
8.
And, then there is an exquisite r/evolution
where the humanity of humanity
seizes
and
the breath of life expands.
Calling out the truth.
Calling out the truth.
Calling out the truth.
I SEE YOU.
I feel the voices, the choir of voices,
whose I AM HUMAN
stories/ expressions/ cries for justice
have been denied and made invisible.
I know the story from my own birth and life narrative.
My anthems as a child:
WE SHALL OVERCOME + TO DREAM THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM.
My beloved Dr. Mark B. Coventry
gave me the template of Abraham Lincoln
as a blueprint of character to prevail no matter the tempest.
Of course, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
compounded my life template
as well as artists who are women
and
those whose divine gifts were larger
than their physical description.
“…judged by the content of their character!”
THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO
2013
I created fifteen paintings
to commemorate the
MARCH on WASHINGTON FOR FREEDOM + JOBS.
I did NOT know how many works would emerge.
I followed the sound of the silver horn within me,
the clarion sound that tumbled the walls of Jericho,
the Berlin Wall, the walls of apartheid,
the walls of domestic violence,
the walls of being voiceless and invisible, the walls of poverty,
the walls that makes one think they can dominate another
and
steal
their body + soul:
the walls of inhumanity.
THE MARCH TOWARD HUMANITY CONTINUES.
THE MARCH IS A GOSPEL SONG,
A SPIRITUAL,
A CALL + RESPONSE OF:
HUMANITY IS LOVE/LOVE IS HUMANITY.
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON
ARTIST
( PLEASE SEE THE “ABOUT” PAGE IN THIS WORDPRESS.)
CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 
Catherine I. Johnson’s latest series of paintings and writings has shocked me and locked me into a focus on her subject that I cannot escape. The capital letters could be heard as shouting, like a bad mannered email. But the printing is somehow childlike, with tentative letters while others are hard-pressed with exertion, smudges, erasings, and small spaces between the words. I end up reading very slowly to decifer each word, and I hear the words whispered to me, like an innocent child saying a truth without rancor.
Johnson is an old soul who is a poet and theologian creating her art, at once a performance artist and confessor for the world’s sins. Her work is brilliant, shining a keen light on the need for all of us to see the Scared and the Sacred in ourselves and in all people. She reaches me with such tenderness, that I am not afraid to look and to see and to own and to change.
Anita L. Kozan, PhD, CCC
Minneapolis, MN, USA
Dr. Kozan,
Thank you.
YOU HEARD THE ANCIENT SONGS OF CHILDREN AND EVERY MAN AND WOMAN WHO HAS BEEN WALLED OF AND SHAMED AND MADE TO FEEL UNWORTHY TO RAISE THEIR VOICE.
THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO IS DEDICATED TO ALL, PAST AND PRESENT, AS A HURRICANE LAMP AND AS A DIVINING ROD TO CALL OUT THEIR BEAUTY + AMAZING GRACE.
I finished the last painting right before midnight on the 50th anniversary of March on Washington. I met my goal, and the MARCH within me was revealed to all who witness my art.
The paintings both bled and flowed from me.
I am so honored that you took the time and effort to shape your responses of THE HUMANITY PORTFOLIO into words-offerings.
Thank you.
The River runs through us,
Catherine L. Johnson