maria renée johnson
To put it simply: I am moved toward reconnection and remembering. In loud and subtle ways, we live in the seas of separation and a power-over, extractivist paradigm. What dissolves and what comes alive when we recognize and practice relationship -- with ourselves, one another, and with the natural world? How does life feel when we sense socio-ecological belonging and create spaces of refuge? What are the deeper truths and silenced stories waiting below ground? How do we come back into knowing that we live in an animate, entangled, and feeling world?
I grew up in the Sonoran Desert, alongside nighthawks, half-urban coyotes, and dusty monsoon storms. This is the context that compels me to listen-in and to create. What I make emerges from practices of deep listening, dreaming, walking, and cultivating relationship with places and their inhabitants. Much of my work is reflective of ecological relationships - both visible and hidden - and the teachings they offer to human beings about how we can better exist in reciprocity and respect with the living world. The ecosystems who nurture and teach us, the human and more-than-human beings in my life, and the great patterns, processes, and liminal spaces are gifts, reflecting that we belong here, but have forgotten - or been separated from - our place.
What I do is for them and it is for you.
The form I am most drawn to is black and white ink drawing using a stippling technique resulting in thousands of tiny dots. It is a meditative reflection on connectivity: a multitude of entities, all equal in importance, collaborating together to create one whole. Other mediums include writing, collaborative land art, and mural painting.
My work has been shown at the University of Arizona's Museum of Art, Saguaro National Park, the Natural History Institute, and the Corvallis Arts Center as well as internationally published in the Dark Mountain Project, in scientific journals including Cultural Geographies in Practice, magazines such as Edible Baja Arizona, and online spaces including Terrain.org. I've collaborated with and/or completed commissions for organizations including the Prescott College Kino Bay Center, Sonoran Institute, the National Park Service, and Upwell.
Beyond my life as an artist, I do environmental conservation work and community griefwork (learn more here). I have an M.S. degree in marine resource management from Oregon State University and a B.A. from Prescott College in environmental studies with a minor in visual arts. The land continues to be my best teacher. Currently, I reside in the Sonoran Desert in so-called Tucson, Arizona – the homelands of the Tohono O'odham and Yoeme people.