Local artist Jill Johnson holds up a binder containing her research for a poetry collection, “After the Swedish Party,” which examines her family’s Swedish immigrant experience. Contributed/Jill Johnson
Johnson enabled her printmaking skills to create “A Fine Line Between,” which represents a horizon line of hope. The artist initially created the piece for shareholders of The Arts Partnership’s Community Supported Art program. Now, she hopes to use it as a template for a larger community-driven installation. Interested organizations or communities are encouraged to reach out to Johnson. Contributed photo/Tania Blanich
For decades, local artist Jill Johnson has been exploring ideas of heritage, specifically her Swedish roots.
Johnson’s large-scale, multi-component installations inspired by Nordic folk art, fiber arts and Nordic aural traditions, have been celebrated for restoring interest in Scandinavian archetypes and the aural storytelling traditions of her ancestors.
“I want people to ask questions, and my art provides a structure for them to do that,” she said. “My art won’t have the answers for them, but they might find some questions that help lead them” to the wisdom they are seeking.
This work has taken her around the globe, into classrooms, out in communities and spanned across artistic mediums, most recently into the world of poetry, where she’s been deepening her understanding of generational trauma and immigration.
A new collection of poems by the Fargo-based artist, “After the Swedish Party,” explores her family’s immigration narrative. The work draws inspiration from a very specific cultural tradition, but readers will likely find many universal truths. She’s currently exploring publishing options for the collection. Here is an excerpt:
I don’t remember now
how I learned
that you were gone,
your prophecy as strong
as the church’s iron door.
I did not know that I would
never see
the stone with your name
dappled with lichen and moss,
covering slowly,
your name.
So tell me
Mamma.
Am I your good son
Now?
Artist Jill Johnson holds up photos during a research trip to Sweden. The multi-talented Moorhead resident recently completed a collection of poems about her family’s Swedish immigration story, “After the Swedish Party.” Johnson is currently exploring publication opportunities. Contributed/Jill Johnson
Totems
Johnson’s understanding of Nordic archetypes and the aural storytelling traditions of her ancestors, for example, help her express thoughts on the cultural emblems we all carry with us. She’s been an artist since age six, when her father gave her a camera as a gift. Her interest in writing came around the same time.
“My parents were both very supportive of me,” she said. “My mom loved my poetry and my dad loved my art, and they gave me a line of hope.”
As a young-adult artist, Johnson wanted to focus on expanding her understanding of her heritage and became interested in Nordic archetypes, aural traditions, spirituality and tribal symbolism.
“I was interested in questions like ‘Are we still tribal after the Vikings threw a sword for the last time?’ ” Johnson said, adding she wanted to understand more about how generational trauma informs the cultural zeitgeist. “What are the cultural items we carry with us?”
Johnson sought to use her art as a way for her to reframe people’s thinking of cultural and generational trauma. She said, “I don’t have the answers for them,” but she knows that her work, and art in general, is one way for people to explore those areas.
“It’s really important for all of us to know where we came from. Our ancestors came here to survive,” Johnson said, emphasizing the importance of drawing inspiration for change and movement from what happened in the past, but not letting it dictate what happens next.
For Johnson, regionality plays heavily in her work no matter in what medium she’s working, which on any given day could be painting, printmaking, sculpture, poetry or photography.
“When you come to your belief system, it’s usually been formed and shaped by the community you live in,” she said.
Historical and Cultural Society of Clay-County Executive Director Maureen Kelly Jonason is a longtime collaborator with and friend of Johnson, who said Johnson’s work, particularly her poetry, captures the unique trauma of the Swedish immigrant experience.
“Jill’s poetry strikes me as powerful expressions of both deeply personal and yet important global conflicts,” Kelly Jonason said. “I first encountered her poetry at readings for In A Woman’s Voice annual art exhibition that had been sponsored by the Women’s Network of the Red River Valley at a time when women artists were severely undervalued.”
As an adult, Johnson attended Concordia Language Villages and learned Swedish, later joining staff at the college and immersing herself in other programs that emphasized cultural heritage, folk art and fine art.
“It’s good to know who you are and where you came from, I think.”
Freedom, empowerment
In addition to her focus on Nordic folk and abstract visual art, much of Johnson’s body of work contains elements of spirituality, too.
Johnson, who became Catholic later in life, credits a nun for encouraging her to use her art as a vehicle for spiritual growth.
“Sister Andrea Arndt really showed me that the artistic process is connected with spirituality,” she added.
Jonason, who has herself worked for decades in the field of cultural preservation, added that Johnson’s earlier poetry echoes the artist’s passion for the liberation of women in other cultures, too.
“At one point, when she worked with Mujeres Unidas, her poetry focused on Latina empowerment and the trauma of imprisonment,” Jonason said. “What struck me so deeply in her book was how she captured the trauma that is a part of every immigrant’s experience. We love to white-wash the experience of immigrants as having a wonderful time pursuing the American Dream, and we don’t always want to acknowledge the extreme loss of family, identity, and belonging to the homeland that every immigrant must face.”
Born into a family of Swedes in which the grandparents didn’t learn English until adulthood, Johnson understood as a young person that being grounded in community and culture was a great place to get support for her artistic expressions.
Johnson wants to broaden community access to the arts and recently earned a Community Teaching Artist Certificate from Cal State Los Angeles, which she intends to use as a way to coach individuals, groups and organizations on how to integrate art into their work. Johnson said anyone interested in learning more can email her at jilljohnson.artandculture@gmail.com.
Work
When she’s not working on her art or teaching, Johnson is a sales associate at Swanson Health in Fargo. While it seems like an odd choice for a lifelong artist, she said stepping out of the creative headspace helps ground her in the physical world around her.
“Work is a necessary ingredient in my life. I need to be up there running items through a scanner so my brain can be thinking about an art project or a poem,” Johnson said.
The job at Swanson helps pay for art materials, too, ones she’s willing to pay top dollar for best quality.
“I just bought $450 worth of Irish linen,” she said. “That stuff is atrociously expensive.”
But it’s worth it for the end result, according to Johnson. She plans to use the linen as a primary “substance” for the last section of a new installation she’s working on tentatively titled “Jera,” which in Viking translates to “harvest.”
“It’s deeply personal work, an examination of not just surviving, but how do you survive well, with hope? That’s something I’ve been thinking about in the last third of my life,” she said.
This article is part of a content partnership with Forum Communications. The Arts Partnership thanks FCC for supporting local art.
