PATRICIA JOHANSONTimeline Biography1940-1967 | 1968-1970 | 1971-1994 | 1995-2003
1981
Johanson married E.C. Goossen, and sons Alvar, Gerrit, and Nathaniel were born in 1973, 1978, and 1980, reinforcing her commitment to developing a more functional, practical, and life-supporting art. Numerous plans and models, based on the structures and patterns of nature, were produced during her years as housewife and mother.
Gerrit, Alvar and Nathaniel Goossen
At Fair Park Lagoon in Dallas, sculpture is deployed to control shoreline erosion, create microhabitats, and enhance public access. Living ecosystems are restored by enlarging and balancing the food chain, and the lagoon, itself, acts as a flood basin.
'Endangered Garden'
Johanson was diagnosed with "terminal" cancer in 1989. Her subsequent plans for "Survival Sculptures" proposed art projects that literally saved lives by countering severe environmental degradation.
'Park For a Rainforest'
In the mid-1990s Johanson's work was seen in major exhibitions around the world including La Defense, Paris, the National Museum of Fine Arts, Rio de Janeiro, La Verreina, Barcelona and Gallery Nikko, Tokyo.
Back to 1968-1970
Continue to 1995-2003
1987 1992
Nathaniel Goossen
'Estuary / Maze House'
'Saggitaria Platyphylla'
Commissioned to design a new sewer along San Francisco Bay. "Endangered Garden" creates a one-third of a mile baywalk along the sewer's roof, with tidal sculpture, butterfly meadow, endangered species habitat, and restored shellfish substrate, all within the image of the endangered San Francisco Garter Snake.
Patricia Johanson
"Park for the Amazon Rainforest" was commissioned for the Earth Summit, and combines preservation and research with economic survival in an area that is rapidly being destroyed. In 1997 the Brazilian government donated a site for the park near Obidos.
JOMO executives with Patricia Johanson