C.A. Johnson Sculpture

Welcome to my sculpture site. Thank you for visiting.

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Like most artists, whether they admit it or not, their art is self-portrait, to some degree. While these outsized botanical sculptures began simply as pure love of botanical form, they have become more. The work is exploratory and developing and these pieces are uniquely decorative. I began sculpting the figure years ago and have significant training from The Graduate School of Figurative Art of The New York Academy of Art, now known as The New York Academy of Art. When I lived in San Diego, CA, I tutored under the late sculptor, T.J. Dixon. My training with her and from the academy is figure focused.

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While I very much enjoy sculpting the figure, it wasn't until I gave myself permission to use my convex form skills to experiment with other object form to which I am drawn, that I began this journey. And that is the fascinating world of botanicals. My preference at the start of this, is with what is called closed form. That can be described, loosely, as the figure with all of its appendages drawn in, as if in a ball . . . like an apple. Thus, a sculpture theme of self-protection or containment. I realize now that containment is integral to personal growth, particularly in the beginning of that journey, ironic as it may seem. After introspection, and creating a quince, indeed an apple, a walnut, a cherry and other groupings, I began to look to my work as messaging symbols, if just to myself. Difficult topics are just that, difficult. My background and studies from working in the profession of family therapy inevitably drew me to a difficult topic, and that is: generational trauma. Some take this subject as controversial. This is where the tire meets the road, so to speak. It is precisely that audience that I seek to reach, on a deeper level. But I'm not going to push it. I'm just going to offer it. I find that if I can draw folks in with beautiful form, and maybe a conflated idea or whimsical presentation, using an unexpected physical subject, that I might also plant a mental seed, in order to pull them emotionally and safely into this important matter of our time.

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At least this is my hope.

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Wherever I look, I see signs of the commandment to honor one's parents

and nowhere of a commandment that calls for the respect of a child.

German Psychologist, Alice Miller