JOURNEYS is a continuing series on the Pilgrim Pouch Peregrinations blog that features interviews with Camino walkers, artists, writers, travelers, & creative seekers met in my wanderings. Guests are asked 5 questions that reflect adventures & discoveries along their unique life journeys.
Today’s guest is San Diego artist Johanna Hansen whose work tells stories through whimsy, humor and satire. She describes her art pieces, done primarily with clay, as “little dialogues with my audience…more like vignettes or ditties or haiku than epics.” Johanna’s background includes studying painting & printmaking at San Diego State University, teaching art to middle school students, and operating her own art gallery, The Next Door Gallery.
She exhibits her work across the Southwest, including at the Santa Ysabel Art Gallery & the Oceanside Museum of Art in San Diego and Adelante Art Gallery in the Phoenix area. Additionally, Johanna is a member of the Allied Craftsmen of San Diego and also belongs to the Mira! Group, a diverse circle of women artists who host shows together and participate in Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) memorial celebrations in November. Further, she participates in shows with an artists’ group that creates imagery representing dictionary words Johanna & other members choose. Collected worldwide, her work explores the ‘interior landscapes’ of existence and celebrates “the colorful, the whimsical, and the messiness of being.”
Johanna lives with husband Don & ‘furry family members’ in a historic adobe home. Behind the house is her charming cottage studio complete with kilns & a wood stove. Son Elden often stops by to help with chores & join in the creative fun.
I became friends with Johanna while preparing for my first Camino walk with Dad, done in remembrance of Mom & her two sisters. At the time, I was searching for a ceramics studio where I could create Dala horses, which we planned to leave at spots along the trail in honor of the three sisters’ Swedish heritage. One place I contacted referred Johanna because of her work with memorials, and she kindly welcomed me into her studio for my project. Since then, many hours have been spent there creating art & swapping inspiration.
Above: In the studio with Johanna, Elden, & ‘furry family members’ Chi Chi, Scruffy, & Naranja
Right: Dia de los Muertos cards, mixed media, 2020
Johanna, you’ve taught kids’ art classes for many years and use examples from art history in your lessons. How has teaching benefited your art practice, & what work from art history has been most influential to you?
I became an artist/storyteller as I talked about fine art in “friendly terms” to my middle school students. I also have kids to thank for my unabashed use of color. They seem naturally drawn to bright and bold.
The work of Vincent Van Gogh (stories), Beatrice Wood (satire), Alexander Calder (wire), Mexican Folk Art, and Southern (American) Folk Art are closest to my heart as inspiration.
5 pieces interpreting the word Moments; mixed media, each piece 4″x 7″; part of exhibit Words Imagined; James Alan Rose Art Gallery, Francis Parker School; 2019.
Your work with clay includes making small figures, or “artifacts,” which incorporate various elements, such as wire, nails, & metal/plastic charms. How did your unique style develop, and what is the significance of the artifacts?
The wire and nails started as a way to construct my pieces. I use the fragility of clay as an expressive element, and wire and nails make it possible to construct more delicate forms. As time passed, the hardware became part of the design. The charms bring a little magic!
My work is very autobiographical. I excavate my feelings on a regular basis and those feelings take form in my work. The artifacts are a product of my personal “dig.”
Mixed media ‘artifact’ figures of various sizes; 5’x 10′ whole installation; part of the exhibit Artifacts, sponsored by the Allied Craftsmen of San Diego; Oceanside Museum of Art; 2018.
You frequently take ‘pilgrimages’ to explore galleries & art installations, including road trips to Tucson, Arizona, and Joshua Tree, California. How has visiting these places inspired your creativity, and where else would you like to go?
I’m fascinated by spaces created by artists. Most specifically, roadside attractions and “outsider” venues excite me. I like to feel the presences of the creators. The humbler the better! I’m fascinated by environments created by artists for themselves and for visitors. I, myself, live in an ongoing project called Apron Forest, where the trees wear aprons in the style of my mother and grandmother.
I’m constantly on the lookout for such places. I’d like my next pilgrimage to be to the Southern U.S. A road trip left mostly to chance would be perfect.
Your art practice includes creating altars for Dia de los Muertos, which is a holiday in Mexico on Nov. 1 & 2 that commemorates family & friends who have passed. What visual imagery do you exhibit, and how does this tradition resonate with your work?
I’ve done a Dia de los Muertos altar for the last 28 years for my son, Daniel, who died of SIDS as an infant. Each year my altar changed to celebrate the age he would have been had he lived. When he would have been five, I made Dia de los Muertos lunch boxes and pencil toppers. When 16, I did cars and rear-view mirror ornaments. All used traditional Dia imagery like skulls, skeletons, and bones, to decorate the objects I made. The Dia de los Muertos tradition has kept Daniel close as years have passed.
For 2020, I did Mail Art postcards to honor Daniel and sent them out into the world!
For the last couple of years, in addition to Daniel’s altar, I have participated in a group altar at El Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park with my fellow “Mira!” artists.
Left: Altar for Daniel, 8′ tall, mixed media, 2019
This past year I’ve missed visiting your studio & seeing your latest projects. How has the pandemic isolation affected your work, & what new visual themes have you explored while ‘staying-at-home’?
I’ve missed studio visits and children’s classes terribly! I’ve kept on working as, thankfully, the galleries which carry my work have survived. But the feeling of isolation and disconnection have been very real! I’ve done four different batches of “Mail Art,” which felt amazing to send out rather randomly via snail mail. The feedback was heartwarming.
Other recent work includes ironic G.I. Joe inspired “Playsets” of refugees, refugee shelters, and wheeled Statues of Liberty. I’ve also made nine miniature chairs for some of my favorite icons…from Joni Mitchell to James Baldwin. As we endured isolation, I also created “Covid Critters”: wheeled animals like rabbits, cats, and squirrels, wearing beaked plague masks, and carrying a single Covid germ. I see them as good luck critters, coming to take Covid away!
COVID Critters, mixed media, each piece 3″x 4″x 7″, 2020
Lung ex-voto, mixed media, 2″x 3″, 2020