Ruth Johnson is a 55-year old musician who has recently embarked on a new adventure in life. After 30 years of yard sales, thrift stores, rock collecting, and studying local fauna and flora, she has brought together all these elements into an honest and uniquely framed art form. Although her works could be categorized as "folk art," a new term is needed to describe the process of bringing together objects that rhyme and flow in concert with one another.
All of her compositions contain recycled materials. As a result, many of her works hang outside (protected from direct rain, please!) under an eave or on a porch, often near the edges of the landscape that inspired them. Released from the confines of glass, the montages are 3-dimensional, textured, and touchable. Everyday objects are transformed into themes and dreams. The domestic and exotic find a fusion.
What started out as an idea, a flower press and a microwave oven, has grown into an art form that incorporates re-found treasures, beach glass, figurines, rocks, tree bark, branches, grasses, tile, junk jewelry, coins, shells, masks, feathers, and seeds. A journey around someone’s back yard can nearly always yield treasures and textures – the raw materials of her vision.
During a recent interview, she said, "At 55, no one really expects anything from you. Therefore, one can take bigger chances." She notes that the possibilities of mixed media are endless, as each element unfolds again and again to reveal small vignettes of magic and imagination. The works speak for themselves.
Ruth currently resides on Ben Lomond Mountain in Northern California, amid the redwoods. She shares her home with her partner, two dozen Chickadees, and a cat that only gets fed on the front porch.
