John Seward Johnson II

Hello and happy Thursday, lovely ladies!

GramE is here with me in New Jersey this week!  We've been having lots of fun. 

GramE and her friend Andi went to a wonderful art place this week, so we're going to use him as the artist this week.  It was a beautiful place with gardens and hundreds of sculptures and they got to walk around and look at all the art and she wishes you could have seen it with her!

The sculptors name is John Seward Johnson II, but he's mostly known as just Seward Johnson.  His family is the same one as Johnson & Johnson - like the people who make band aids and baby shampoo, and he's also a cousin to an actor named Michael Douglas.

Seward was born in 1930, and I'm pretty sure he's still alive today.  He started out as a painter, but I can't find any of his work and GramE says that what she saw in the museum didn't impress her too much - she's glad he switched over to sculpture!

Some of his sculptures are HUGE, and some are people sized, but most of them are of people, no matter how gigantic they might be.  Most of them are cast in bronze, and then he has people who help him finish it...which some art people have a problem with.  Some of his sculptures are inspired from famous paintings, and he makes life sized people that look like they stepped out of the painting - which I think is pretty cool, but is another thing the snooty art people don't like....so maybe what I like best about Seward is that even though throughout his art career a whole lot of people gave him heck about his work, he didn't let it get him down, and he kept creating beautiful, fun things, and he built this wonderful park that people can go and interact with and enjoy!  I love art that people can touch.

I'm going to show you three of his sculptures, and the famous thing that inspired them - two were from paintings and one is from a photograph; I'm very impressed that he could take something two dimensional and turn it into a sculpture!

That's all for now - I have to go spend time with GramE before she leaves!

Know that I love you and think that you're awesome.

Hugs and kisses,

Auntie Paula

xoxoxoxo