SCARY THINGS UNDER THE BED AND OTHER STORIES THAT MIGHT BE TRUE- BY PAT JOHNSON

A clay artist for more than 45 years, Pat Johnson is known for her sometimes disturbing but humorous figurative sculpture and tile murals, which take cues from a grab bag of influences ranging from antiquity to popular culture. In her imagined scenarios, Johnson depicts herself as the protagonist or "the artist," taking action against racial injustice, political corruption, and corporate greed. While she uses humor to quickly grab the viewer's attention, the weighty statements concerning social, environmental, and corporate responsibilities become evident upon further observation.

Her most recent work, based on the childhood fear of scary things under the bed, has served as therapy for her current life situation. The beds are based on her real bed, and she wanted to challenge the fragility of clay. She reverted to using glaze so that the viewer is very aware that the pieces are made of clay.

“Making my work clarifies beliefs and feelings-- whether a social, political statement or a personal one. The ritual of making the work in clay can bring me back from the brink of frustration to a balance in me, hopefully, producing a similar effect on the viewer. I feel I have made a successful piece when the viewer can make it their own story.”

Johnson lives and works in the small rural town of Fayetteville, Texas. She was commissioned to produce tile murals for the College Station Public Library, Monument Hill Historic Site in La Grange, and the Temple Agudas Achim in Austin; as a Texas Commission for the Arts artist-in-residence she taught and produced murals in Longview, Waco, and Austin. Pat also does works on paper and has designed t-shirts for Lyle Lovett.

Pat has been featured in numerous one person and group shows in Texas and the surrounding states, including exhibits at the Art Car Museum, Longview Museum of Fine Art, McNay Art Museum, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and Galveston Art Center. She has won numerous awards including “Best of Show” at the ClayHouston 2019 Regional Biennial Exhibition Timeless Clay: Future Artifacts juried by Jennifer Ling Datchuk, and 2nd Place in the Ceramic National Competition at the San Angelo Museum of Art. She was one of nine women artists from around the state to be selected for the inaugural exhibition at Women and Their Work, Austin in 2021.