Bonita Johnston

During COVID isolation, freeform crochet entered my orbit. I eagerly moved away from patterns for blankets and scarves and toward expressive figurative work, connecting to my early art education at USC where I focused on figures in painting and printmaking. I have always painted and drawn figures and portraits but the yarn spoke to me in new and exciting ways, different from paint or pencil. I frequently lose myself in the textures and colors, following the spiral or straight stitches where they might go. Eventually the yarn and I bargain our way to a finished product.

My crochet piece, Ghost of Christmas Present is my interpretation of the character from Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. The two figures underneath the cape represent ignorance and poverty, two issues that haunt the world today as they did in Dickens’ time.