Johnnene Maddison
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Growing up near the Detroit Institute of Arts had a profound impact on the rest of my life as an artist. I was able to take art lessons at the DIA from the time I was 10 years old until my late teens. Drawing while sitting on the floor beneath the Diego Rivera murals was an inspiring and empowering experience. I knew from the time I was quite young that I wanted to be an artist.
In high school I took all the art classes available and joined the art club. I majored in fine art at Pratt Institute in New York City and took full advantage of the exciting world of art in New York during the early 1960s. I spent a few years after graduation working in art studios In Detroit and Los Angeles before earning a Master of Arts in Education at the University of Michigan. During that time I worked as a cake decorator, an interior designer, a poster artist for Hollywood Bell Telephone, a window display artist and a keyline and paste‐up artist. I moved to Windsor, Ontario in 1969 and continued to teach art in a Detroit elementary school. I later worked at the Art Gallery of Windsor. I earned a teaching certificate at Althouse College in London, Ontario. That enabled me to teach in Ontario Secondary Schools, at Fanshawe College and at adult education centres and guild workshops across Ontario and Michigan.
Most of my work has been about women’s issues and the place of women in society. One and two person exhibitions have explored the topics of wearing burka and the portrayal of women by the media. My most recent exhibition, Women, Work and WWII traveled to eight Ontario public galleries and was featured in magazines in Canada, the United States, England and Japan. Fifteen pieces were purchased by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
I have also created many watercolours using subject matter from inside my home such as light coming in the window, flowers on the kitchen table, shadows on the loving room wall and portraits of my two cats.
I am currently working on a series of mixed media pieces dealing with the issues of loss, grieving and recovery. These are worked on canvas using acrylic paints, photo transfers with drawing and hand and machine stitching. I am also keeping an illustrated journal to accompany the larger works.
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