SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Judith Johnson has had many titles, a wife, mother and career woman but she has always been an artist. After retiring in 2016, Johnson sold her Austin, Texas, home and moved to Sacramento. 

“There were certain things I wanted in a new place,” Johnson said. “I prefer to walk and cycle. The climate is great for gardening and Sacramento is close to Lake Tahoe and so much natural beauty. And of course, there is the art community.”

She found a Land Park home that met the checklist, plus the spot had incredible natural light for an artist studio. She didn’t know anyone but quickly fixed that problem by volunteering at The Crocker and Verge Arts. Today, art is the center of her world and clearly displayed in rooms all over her home and also hiding in closets, the garage and under her bed.

Johnson’s style is an orderly medley of color, pattern and memory. She gives common items with cherished memories new meaning in bright acrylics and assemblages. An assemblage is a collage of repurposed items creating a new image. Her kitchen table is where Johnson sketches her ideas in winter. 

She points to a sketch, “Barnicle Betty’s Heart.” The high relief piece contained in an emergency first-aid box hangs in her living room. She added her grandmother’s gloves, rusty pliers and other items.

“I call it ‘do it yourself heart surgery.’ The barnacles look like a heart to me. It reminded me of an old song; Hey girls bring rusty pliers and pull this tooth because all men are liars and that’s the truth. “

Johnson has a series of assemblage-type work involving discarded junk she finds along the local paths she cycles with her boyfriend. A sculpture, part of the “Bike Lane Series” is a whimsical treat; “The Snake Goddess’s” backside is a spine-painted bike seat and she is adorned in bottle caps, wires and snakeskin patterns. “Bike Lane #3” is a woman’s face with discarded CDs for glasses.

Johnson is also an outdoor enthusiast and completed a piece inspired by her frequent walks along the tree-lined river. It was commissioned by Kaiser Permanente and will hang in an ICU breakroom.

“I think it will be a nice colorful piece for the doctors who work in ICU, which must be terrible at times,” Johnson said.

After receiving an arts degree at the University of North Texas, Johnson painted murals for restaurants. A minor in technical theater had her freelancing at the Performing Arts Center in Austin.

“When you get an art degree, you end up doing weird jobs,” she chuckled. 

Johnson also worked as a cartographer before computers were used in the field. 

“Map making was done with India Ink on Mylar film back then,” Johnson said. “If you made a mistake, you started over.”

When Johnson married and began a family, her priorities changed: “I cobbled together an existence but I didn’t want my kids to have to live with the bohemian lifestyle.”

She found a steady career as a criminal investigator in financial crime at the Texas Attorney General’s Office, which lasted 30 years. During that time, her family found out her son had a brain tumor and worked through several emotionally draining and expensive surgeries. The good news is that her son is an adult and doing well today. 

Johnson found a way to combine her experiences in her artwork. Investigating stacks of stale financial data honed her ability to see patterns and pinpoint the one aspect that didn’t fit to create a successful case. Her cartography past is reflected in a series of paintings of California’s central coast. “Morrow Bay” hangs in her studio. Another piece of Yosemite Falls was displayed and sold at the Crocker Kingsley Blue Line Exhibition in Roseville.

Johnson keeps boxes of bits and bobs of family mementos to draw from. These often give her ideas for new works. An example is a painting of Johnson looking into a mirror where her mother and grandmother look back. Patterns associated with wallpaper and fractured images of her childhood float about the piece.

Who doesn’t have a nondescript, cherished item from someone they loved, an item that brings back a feeling or a pattern emerging in their own dreams at times? Maybe this is what viewers can relate to the most.

As she gazes at the grey retaining wall outside her studio, Johnson said, “I see floating people on the wall in an ocean or something.”

Judith Johnson will get to painting the wall when the flotsam drifts in place in her colorful mind. Follow Judith Johnson and where her art will be exhibited at www.judithjohnson-artist.com.