Artist Statement

Carla Rae Johnson collaborated with writer Baruŝka Lipski (Barbara Lipp) and audio technician, Gene Panczenko to produce “Pandemica Playhouse,” a hysterically entertaining though dreadful puppet show featuring the “Supreme Leader,” Melania, Mike Pence, and Buzzy the Fly.
The “Pandemic Playhouse: a Dreadful Puppet Show” offered its audiences three acts in each of six performances. The acts were read by author, Barbara Lipp. Puppets and puppet theater were constructed by the artist. SRO crowds cheered and jeered at each performance in downtown Peekskill, NY.

Artist Statement

Constructed of thin, cedar slats, these towers are filled with 2,298 Origami Peace Cranes. 2,298 is the estimated number of human beings lost on 9-11-2001 in a moment of terror few of the living will ever forget. In Japan, a symbol of longevity and fortune, the cranes are a plea for peace. These twin towers embody both fragility in their thin elements, and strength in the material from which they are constructed: Cedar is a tree and a wood known for strength and endurance: summoning a lasting peace.

Artist Statement

Gaze” suggests standing outside on a clear night, in a place where no air or light pollution obstruct our view and gently looking upwards to realize a sense of scale and awe with feet planted on our Earth…imagining Earth justice.

Artist Statement

Walt Whitman is a beloved poet, excessive in his unrestrained use of words, his profane reverence for nature, his unbridled methods of verse, his irreverence for society, his candid exploration of sexuality, and his copious growth of whiskers.  I honor Whitman with this volume of his most celebrated and free verse: “Leaves of Grass.” I summon his spirit with leaves of grass cut from his own verses.  Considered irreverent and criminal by bibliophiles, the alteration of this volume calls forth Whitman’s spirit with the utmost respect.

Artist Statement

GMO’s, herbicides, pesticides, nitrates, de-forestation, industrial agriculture, and climate change threaten the biosphere, our flora and fauna, and our very survival.  “Gardening in the Anthropocene” is a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that we may soon be doing all our “gardening” in petri dishes in a lab with artificial lighting for sun, hydroponic systems for water, genetically altered plants, farmers in lab coats, and forceps for harvesting!

Artist Statement

Misogyny carries a gavel, a cross, or a bunch of “forgive me again” roses on its way to the war on women and returns with stories of spoils and plunder.  These fictional books comprise “Misogynist War Stories” as they return from the front laden with all they have grabbed.

Artist Statement

Deadly Sins 21st Century” and is a variation on the medieval Seven Deadly Sins. Recently, I have cast about in searching for how we landed in our current state of darkness and anxiety. In our country, since many of us have grown comfortable and secure thinking that certain values are universally shared, it has been shocking to watch them challenged, eroded, and ignored. I suggest it may be the attributes of: Greed, Deceit, Cowardice, Ignorance, Bigotry, Hate, and Apathy that have landed us in our current time of insecurity and encumbered us with relentless stress, appalling despots, and inverted values.

The seven boxes are constructed of stained birch plywood and dowels with polished graphite ends. The dowels exhibit the sins each box represents. Some are anthropomorphic. Some imply the acts themselves, and some even look back at us.

Artist Statement

Monuments to the oppressors of the past have come down all over our country.  Marches and rallies help us unite in the causes of social justice, but it is time for a monument that honors a more just and equitable future. In 2020, I built a pedestal for the “Monument to the Future” and brought it into local communities.

In public spaces, the pedestal beckons individuals to become a living monument by mounting steps to the top of the pedestal, striking a heroic pose, and making a public pledge to a better future. Participants pledge to help stop climate change; take actions for social justice; run for office; live compassionately;  educate for the future; raise the next generation to live responsibly; become anti-racist; protect, feed, and house the most vulnerable members of our society; or to take hundreds of other actions that can make for a better world. Inspired by Mel Chin’s Philadelphia installation “Two Me” this pedestal has been installed in public spaces in 2020 and 2021 pointing people to a thoughtful relationship with our future, rather than glorification of a dubious past. In this way the artist encourages social change, in individuals and within local communities.

Artist Statement

“Encore Power” is viewer interactive. Images of powerful women of the past are painted on plywood panels with cutouts allowing visitors to stand behind them and insert their faces for photo ops.

Virginia Woolf
Wearing: Waders & inflatable life-vest, also, a large sunhat
Accessories: Swim-mask and water test kit (no rocks in her pockets)
Encore: Virginia is an environmentalist on the sloop, Clearwater, cleaning up the Hudson River

Harriet Tubman
Wearing: Camo & bullet-proof vest
Accessories: English to Spanish dictionary and night-vision binoculars, carries a small child.
Encore: Harriet is helping those seeking asylum at the U.S. border

Frida Kahlo
Wearing: traditional Tehuana flowing skirt and top, floral head-piece, and an above-the-knee prosthesis
Accessories: portable easel, paints. and brushes
Encore: Frida teaches art to Indigenous Americans in the Southwest and is a fierce advocate for people with disabilities.

Fannie Lou Hamer
Wearing: jacket and dress of traditional West African mud cloth, sandals, and sun hat
Accessories: Water cups and pitcher
Encore: Mrs. Hamer is distributing water to Georgians waiting in line to vote.

“Encore” Monologues
The women in these 4 panels were brought to life in monologues performed by local actors and written by Mara Mills, Artistic Director of Studio Theater in Exile at Hudson Valley MOCA in 2022 and at the Hammond Museum in North Salem, NY in 2021.