This article was originally published Nov. 14, 2024 in the McCook Gazette
McCOOK Neb. - Two of McCook’s artists, Karmon Johnson and Vera Hanson, are currently featured in Nebraska Folk and Traditional Arts: A Sampling - an exhibition in the Fred Simon Gallery in downtown Omaha, through Nov. 29.
Nebraska Folk and Traditional Artists: A Sampling showcases the work of ten folk and traditional artists who create in diverse methods and media and live throughout Omaha, Lincoln, and greater Nebraska. Folk and traditional artists learn techniques and imagery that have been passed down through communal or familial means. At times an artist has been self-taught in their craft, drawn to revive a lost or seldom-practiced art form or develop something so singular it is without precedent. The individuals included in this exhibition are a mere sampling of artists that can be found across the state.
Independent curator Teliza Rodriguez brings together the work of folk and traditional artists who represent a broad spectrum of artistic techniques, materials, cultures, and communities for Nebraska Folk and Traditional Artists: A Sampling. Despite their diversity, the artists have a common interest in community, in sharing these traditions with other people and encouraging others to explore their creativity.
Karmon Johnson
Karmon Johnson is an Egg Artist. She learned to make sugar eggs as a child. After she had made them with her own children, her grandmother introduced her to an Egg Artist who taught her the basics of Egg Art. She made her first in 1983.
As a dental hygienist, she had experience with small dental tools and drills which aided her in the ability to carve the eggs. Patients coming to the dentist’s office would bring her a variety of eggs - chicken, duck, goose, ostrich, and even emu. This gave her a variety of sizes to hone her craft. She also purchased eggs and other supplies from an egg art supply company.
Her eggs are as beautiful as they are unique. She developed many techniques, including carving, smooth and raised decoupage,beading, and decorating with real jewels, pearls, braids, and pieces of jewelry she had or found. She shared a piece made with a beautiful ruby red broach that had belonged to her grandmother.
Her eggs, many beautifully displayed in glass cabinets in her dining room, each have unique features. Johnson wanted each of them to have a purpose. Some have little doors that open, revealing a surprise inside, a small figurine, or a piece of jewelry. Those that open are lined on the inside with velvet, silk, and even leather. A beautiful clock with hand-beaded flowers adorning the outside and an inverted blue eggshell face catches one’s eyes and ears with a beautiful Westminster chime.
Johnson favors the nativity scenes. There are so many, and they are each so intricately decorated, one could spend the day discovering something new.
One with leather lining was made for her husband. It is a large ostrich egg with a cowboy and horse carved on top, a beautiful horsehair tassel, and her husband’s brand carved on the underside. It opens to show the beautiful leather lining. Her husband, who recently passed, supported her craft by putting a ventilation system in what was her egg room at the farm. She smiled as she shared how he had once bought her an air compressor for Christmas.
She no longer decorates eggs, but she does other crafts including painting, sewing, and arranging flowers. She also volunteers at the Helping Hand Thrift store in McCook where she has been busy with co-volunteers putting together gift baskets. With a creative flair and her eye for design, they are sure to make someone a very nice gift this holiday.
Vera Hanson
Vera Hanson shared her passion for "scherenschnitte", pronounced shear’en-schnit, meaning paper cutting in German. Her home is a beautiful gallery of her art, with some pieces priced, and ready for sale.
Traditionally, the finished silhouette, a velvety jet black, is mounted on an ivory background and framed in black. But Vera has mounted her art on different colors and in a variety of frames. She uses very sharp pointy scissors to create intricate works of art.
She learned paper cutting as a young girl in Germany where she was raised and educated. She came to America as an immigrant at 19 years old. In 1959, she married in Southwest Nebraska, where she raised her family. One of her sons was in an accident when he was 20 and returned home for rehabilitation and that was when she began to do paper cutting again. She pursued the art with the help of her family in Germany providing her with the patterns and scissors, until she was able to find a supplier in the United States.
She recently completed a tree with a grimacing expression with children sitting atop, listening to a story being told by what appears to be an old troll. Like many of her pieces, it prompts memories of childhood. She only works on her craft for a couple of hours a day, so the piece took several weeks to complete. She like to work when she is very relaxed and has nothing else pressing to do. She will sit and cut as she listens to music or TV in the background. One can hear the love in her voice as she says in her melodic German accent “It’s my passion, my fulfillment”.
Over the years her work has been shown at craft and specialty shows. For years she traveled to the annual conventions of “Germans from Russia”, and her pieces have been sold coast to coast. She has received several ribbons and awards at the state and county level but was extremely honored recently to receive a medal from the Nebraska State Fair as an outstanding artist. Her scherenschnitte creations have been shown locally at the McCook Art Guild and McCook Clinic.
Both Johnson’s and Hanon’s works are on display at the Fred Simon Gallery in Omaha through Nov. 29. The gallery is located at 1004 Farnam Street in Omaha.
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