Johnson artwork currently featured at PCC gallery

After receiving her Bachelors in Fine Art from Whitman College in 2009, Vanessa Johnson took an au pair position in Nuremberg, Germany. During her year working as an au pair, she applied and was accepted to the Nuremberg Akademie of Fine Arts, the oldest German speaking art school in Central Europe. 
 
The Delmar Riney Art Gallery at Pratt Community College, which is open every Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., will exhibit art work Johnson created during her time in Germany. The show will run from Aug. 22- Sept 23. Her work explores a wide range of subject matter and media. Animals figure prominently in Johnson’s art.
 
She spent her childhood in rural New Mexico, surrounded by an extensive menagerie of animals because both of her parents were veterinarians and now resides in Boise, Idaho. According to Johnson, the realm of the imagination is also richly represented in her art. Her work can be evocative, whimsical, witty, enigmatic, mysterious, silly, ethereal and sometimes sinister or macabre.
 
“If a painting moves or touches someone, then I have succeeded,” Johnson said.
 
Johnson’s stepdad, Patrick Hall, was PCC’s head volleyball coach for six years. Her mother, Ande Hall, taught ballroom dance at PCC, and became an enthusiastic potter during her three years in Pratt. The Halls now live in Great Bend.