Biography of Terry Johnson
I was born and raised in Duluth, Minnesota. A child of the fifties with parents who instilled a strict work ethic while stifling creativity that could not be used in the “real world”. While the “free love” generation was enjoying life, I received my draft notice. Rather than go into the Army, I joined the Navy and am a Vietnam veteran. I learned early that emotions only caused problems and learned to bury them deep in my mind. I applied this through life, business and marriage only to find late in life that it wasn’t working.
While wandering through my mind on a journey of self discovery, I found a door that had been there a very long time. One day I decided to open that door discovering a whole new world. It allowed creativity and emotions out into the light. Looking back, creative ideas have always been within me, but I had chosen the logical linear path of “never color outside the lines”. My creative outlet was woodworking, but only as a need not as an expression of self. Once this trapped creativity was allowed to come out, my artist life began. The catalyst for this birth was a trip to a spa in an old artist studio. The energy was incredible; it attacked and stimulated the dormant creative energies in me. I felt a newness and the next day bought paints and canvas.
I painted letting my thoughts, ideas and emotions flow to the canvas. I took classes to understand to use the medium and express myself in different ways. Then one day I discovered that I could also express myself through words. To this day I have no idea where that came from. I started to write some short poetry, then longer poems, short stories and finally plays. The genie had been released from the bottle.
Lastly as an outlet for the poetry and plays I have turned to acting and poetry reading. I perform in a small theater that has helped and encouraged my development as an artist. As a side note, this has happened after I hit my mid fifties.
I have turned my extra bedroom into a studio where I paint to the music of the sixties. I also read my poetry as member of the Floating Mountain Poets. I live, paint and write in Kirkland, WA.