I wanted to tell you more about Johnie Johnson, who had an opening with me recently at the showplace for the future Matt Lamb Museum.

Johnie Johnson has been the doorman for a condominium in Chicago for 26 years.  He is one of the most admired and beloved people and has a huge reputation in this condo.  No matter what goes wrong, just call Johnie, and he can fix it.

A few years ago, he showed me some of his artwork.  I thought it was inspired and wonderful.

He is one of what I call the “secret artists” of the world who labor unappreciated.  He does it just for himself, expressing a world that he sees as an artist—not an ordained artist, not a professed artist, but a real artist nonetheless.  He works in solitude every day and has for many, many years and decades.

He’s very active in a his church in Gary, Indiana.  He is an active chef there, organizing and cooking for events they have at the church.

But hardly anyone knew he was an artist, including the administrators and other people he works with in the condo building—and this man has put more than 30 years of his life into his art.

I’ve run into people such as Johnie and other “secret artists” around the world and always felt if I had the opportunity to bring them forward and show their works to the people they live and work with, then maybe their lonely pilgrimage could be viewed in a different light.  So that’s what we did when we had the show with Johnie, and we may do a similar thing again in the future.

Secret artists exist all around us.  They enrich our whole family.  They should be encouraged to show thier work and we as active artists should be encouraged to help them.  I think it goes both ways.

I recently went to an art show and saw some of the most compelling photography I’ve ever seen, and I’ve had a couple meetings with the photographer, and through his solitary journey and the conversations we had, it really widened my horizons of the innovations in photography.  So help us comes in many different venues.

We should be not only the wanderers but the explorers; we should look for friendships not only in the academy, but also in the solitary rooms that are occupied by some of the world’s great innovators.  That’s what Johnie Johnson represents.

Matt