Gallery
Explore Tye Johnson's evolving body of work through a collection of expressive painting series exploring identity, culture, memory, beauty, growth, love, and the human experience.
Explore the Series
recognize your light... 2024
Inspired by Rumi, these works consider people as sources of light, dimming, brightening, and adjusting until we see ourselves clearly.
everybody IS a story... 2020
Born in Tye's classroom: a series about reading people closely rather than judging books by their covers, every person a story to be synthesized.
sage(d)...2020
Mixed media on canvas in acrylic, paper, charcoal, felt and soft pastels. Tye is still listening to what this series has to say.
b(e) side 2020
A quieter companion body of work on canvas. Like its siblings from 2020, its statement is still in the listening phase.
flourish & prosper 2021
A recent mixed media body of work on canvas. The artist is still sitting with this series — her full statement is coming soon.
message in a bottle.. 2020
Made while breaking out of inherited containers and old cycles — paintings that ask, plainly, what are you saying?
Joy Be Your Compass... 2019
On the unspoken journey of uncovering joy — how we find our way out of the muck, heartache and darkness that life brings.
miss(ed) America 2017
The second installment of Stop and Smell the Roses, honouring Black and Brown women whose sacrifices and beauty remain invisible.
Stop and Smell the Roses 2016
Born in botanical gardens: like flowers, no two people are alike, each fragile, distinct, and telling a story petal by petal.
Paper Dolls and Action Figures 2014
Childhood paper dolls become a lens on the faceless, unbreakable roles women are handed — Geisha Girl, Brownie Sweet, Holy Momma.
that kinda love... 2016
A quest to understand how she wants to love and be loved, painted from the bold, funny, tender answers many people gave her.
Powerful 2014
Sparked by the energy held in a single tree: if one tree can power the earth, how much power lives inside one person?
Love is Messy... Let Go...2014
Two people from different worlds making life work — a series about vulnerability, balance, and giving love room to grow.
Now 2013
Sparked by a Civil Rights protest sign reading 'Now', the work turned inward: a call to be fully present and fully expressed.
without a vision...2011
Bold colour and found texture speak to those who cannot yet see their own worth: without a vision, the people perish.
Bound Beauty: Beauty Bound 2012
On identity as a societal construct — the dressing up, the pretenses, and the beauty and pain bound underneath them.