Melody Johnson

I have been kicking around in the Arts for as long as I can remember. The fact that I have done so many different kinds of creative work demonstrates my restless soul. A restless soul that until my retirement from teaching three years ago had been tethered. Suddenly I have the precious time to live in and around my creative mind.  I was born Melody Jean Smith in 1947 in Salt Lake City, Utah.   I graduated from Brigham Young University in 1969 where I studied History for the stories and Theatre Arts because I loved it. I returned to college at the University of Utah where I received an MFA in Children's Theatre.  I studied under an amazing teacher Vern Adix.  I worked in theatre all over Northern Utah for the next several years.  Finally the need to have a regular income and health insurance for my three kids sent me back to the U where I got a teaching certificate in the social sciences, theatre arts and speech.  I was hired at Lehi High School located in the North end of Utah County in 1984.    In the time I worked there I taught a wide variety of subjects including debate and visual arts. After I had taught at Lehi for two years, Mary Ann Judd Johnson became the visual art teacher. Under her influence, I seriously started oil painting and then started taking a wide variety of visual art classes at the many universities and college in the area until I was certified in visual arts.  I currently live in Saratoga Springs, Utah, a new town right on Utah Lake.

I still do all kinds of creative work.  I am currently writing a novel about 1916 Pleasant Grove.   I have entered and won prizes in many of the local art venues including the Springville and Eccles Art Museum.   I have also participated in several art Fairs including two in Florida.  Local Colors is the first co-op gallery I have been a part of and so far I love it.  I have always dreamed of working with a group of talented artists.

I have worked in a wide variety of media.   Some of the pieces that you will find at Local Colors are water color, water color pencil, and gouache.  I do them while I am traveling because they are easy to carry.   The collages I started experimenting with four years ago are my passion.   They have freed up my style.  I no longer have to be perfect. I can react out of what I love and I love the patterns and colors of paper. I love telling stories through art. I also enjoy gluing little pieces of paper to bigger pieces of paper.   My art is becoming more and more personal.

You can contact me through Local Colors or go to my website. See selected images in my gallery.