Kim Blake tells another story about Johnson's mermaid period, during which Blake pushed Johnson — decked out in her mermaid attire, a Lady Godiva wig, and not much else — down the street to a local watering hole called the News Room, where she entertained patrons drinking and playing pool that night.
In typical starving-artist fashion, Joe Jankovsky traded photography for art with Johnson in those days. Jankovsky recalls that Johnson loved to be photographed, saying she was particularly enthusiastic. He also remembers being with Robert Sentinery, now owner/editor of Java Magazine, when they first spotted Rose: "We were both painters then and we saw this gal come along [near ASU] and she was just beautiful. She had every chance of failing that we did. We went on to other things, but she just had this incredible work drive. She was so prolific."
courtesy of Joe Jankovsky
courtesy of Joe Jankovsky
courtesy of Joe Jankovsky
courtesy of Joe Jankovsky
Jamie Peachey
courtesy of Joe Jankovsky
courtesy of Terry Wolf
courtesy of Terry Wolf
courtesy of Terry Wolf
Joe Jankovsky
Rose Johnson, circa 1993.
Marilyn Szabo
Johnson in a mermaid costume in her Phoenix studio, circa 1988.
Terry Wolf
Johnson posing as one of the “Girls of Brewery Gulch,” for a calendar of the same name.
Joe Jankovsky
Jazz Zen at The Sub Stop in Tempe.
Joe Jankovsky
Johnson preparing for her Shame performance in 1994 at X-Teresa in Mexico City.
Joe Jankovsky
Joe Jankovsky
The snail shell that a nude Johnson crawled out of during her Mexico City performance.
Jamie Peachey
The Prayer of St. Francis, a mural on the Mercer Mortuary building on 16th Street near Thomas Road.
courtesy of Jonquil Motel
Sleepwalking, a mural on the Jonquil Motel in Bisbee.
courtesy of Terry Wolf
Terry Wolf’s portrait of Johnson.
courtesy of Marilyn Szabo
Final Moment
courtesy of Marilyn Szabo
A portrait of Johnson by Marilyn Szabo.
courtesy of Marilyn Szabo
Rose with Red Gun, from the MARS Artspace performance; a
courtesy of Marilyn Szabo
This Balinese wedding photo of Johnson and Imade Ardika was posted on Facebook in February 2009.
Joe Jankovsky
Johnson at work in Mexico in 1994.
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New Times quickly discovered Johnson's considerable talent for editorial illustration and used her on a regular basis during the late '80s and '90s; illustration assignments from other publications, including the state's iconic Arizona Highways, followed. She also did design work for Scottsdale Center for the Arts, the Phoenix Symphony, and St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center. Johnson was generous with her time and talent, donating design work to innumerable local groups, including Free Arts for Abused Children, Empathy Bowls to Feed the Hungry, and Actors Theatre. Johnson would continue to give freely of her talent to whatever community she happened to be in at the time. In Bisbee, she was one of the artists who showed at Belleza Gallery, owned by a nationally recognized non-profit organization, Renaissance House, formerly known as the Women's Transition Project. Net proceeds from the sale of her work went, and continue to go, to funding a substance abuse treatment program for Arizona's homeless women and their children. Substance abuse and its deadly consequences were recurrent theme in Johnson's work.
Before her sudden death, the artist had set in motion the Rose Johnson Foundation, according to a Facebook post by Terry Wolf, a Bisbee singer, songwriter, photographer and friend of Johnson's who had photographed the artist extensively during her Bisbee days. Wolf says the foundation will promote her art and prints, her unpublished memoir, and a book on her complete works and biography. Wolf says 80 percents of the proceeds will go to charity — mostly animal rights groups, about which Johnson was passionate.
It's a Tuesday evening at the Firehouse, an artist's co-op on First Street in downtown Phoenix, and unseasonably balmy. Artist Suzanne Falk has called a meeting for prospective mermaids, who will perform a welcoming ritual for Rose Johnson's spirit at her memorial celebration to be held at 10 p.m. June 20 at the Icehouse. Ideas for costumes, headdresses, and makeup on a shoestring budget are bandied about the circle of women who have volunteered to don glittery mermaid dress and welcome Rose with "magic thoughts."
The meeting eventually ends with the lighting of incense and prayerful chanting in Japanese by a monk who will officiate on the night of the celebration.
Somehow, you just know Rose Johnson would love the spectacle being created in her honor.
