Johnson’s installation of cyanotype prints will be on view at Olbrich Botanical Gardens beginning Gallery Night, Friday, May 6, 2022.

Nature is Healing, designed by artist Angela Johnson, opens this Friday, May 6th at Olbrich Botanical Gardens as part of MMoCA’s Spring Gallery Night. Johnson designed the installation as a safe space for the community to come together and process the collective grief from the pandemic, and to provide an opportunity for healing through shared experience.

In a statement about the installation, the artist shared, “the pandemic has been an isolating experience not only on an individual level but also a collective one that reaches across communities. There have been many losses on many scales in Madison during this period of two years and counting. From individuals losing jobs, security, hope, loved ones due to Covid and other illnesses, not being able to be together or grieve together. This feeling of loss and isolation has affected everyone on many levels.”

Exhibited at Olbrich Botanical Gardens near the Serenity Garden, Nature is Healing is composed of about 70 cotton and silk cyanotype panels that are 9, 6, and 4 feet long. The individual pieces blow and move individually and collectively with the wind. The natural materials captured on the cyanotype panels include flowers, leaves, and branches, many of which are native to Wisconsin and sourced from Olbrich Botanical Gardens. Cyanotypes are an alternative camera-less contact photo printing process that was discovered in the mid-1800s. An image, negative, or translucent objects are laid on top of pre-treated fabric or paper. Glass is pressed down on top creating a contact print, and it is exposed by the sun.

Local artist Angela Johnson looks to creativity, beauty, healing and learning in everything that she does; photography is a medium she connects with and experiences as a form of meditation. "I slow down to be intentional and mindful to look closely at nature and appreciate small details often overlooked in our busy lives. I especially connect to the method of creating cyanotypes on fabric," says Johnson.

The installation was produced with generous assistance from Justin Bitner (Johnson’s husband) who helped make the larger panels and fashioned the wooden supports; and Kelsey Voy (UW Senior and student assistant intern) who sewed the pockets on the panels and wove grasses into some of the panels.

The Madison Arts Commission (MAC) commissioned Nature is Healing through the BLINK grant program, designed to provide artists with the opportunity to produce experimental, temporary works of art in the community. MAC is an 11-member citizen commission appointed by the Mayor to advise the City about matters of arts and culture. MAC’s mission is to foster arts appreciation by initiating partnerships, developing new audiences, and sponsoring diverse artistic activities by emerging and established artists and arts organizations while preserving Madison’s rich artistic tradition. To support a full creative life for all, The Madison Arts Commission commits to championing policies and practices of cultural equity that empower a just, inclusive, equitable city.

Nature is Healing will be exhibited at Olbrich Botanical Gardens from 10 am to 6 pm daily through June 19, 2022.