Carla Rae Johnson
This is a voting booth for Fannie Lou Hamer. In the 1960’s, Mrs. Hamer lost her job and her home, had her life threatened numerous times, had been jailed and badly beaten for her voting-rights activism. It is a quote from Fannie Lou Hamer that inspires the form of this voting booth. When asked if she was afraid she might die while working for the cause, Fannie Lou stated that she was “. . . fully prepared to fall five-feet, four-inches forward in the fight for freedom.” Basically, she would not shut up!
Carla Rae Johnson’s works include drawing, sculpture, conceptual, performance, and installation art. Her work is directly connected to ideas and often addresses issues of social, political, and cultural import. Carla Rae is a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow in Drawing, a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Sculpture, and a 1990 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her work has been exhibited in solo, invitational, and curated shows in museums and galleries nationally and in New York City.
Carla Rae Johnson has a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Iowa. After over 38 years an arts educator, Carla Rae recently retired from her position as a Full Professor of Art at Westchester Community College in Valhalla where she taught from 2003 to 2016. She is now delighted to devote her energies to art, full time.
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