Duwenavue Sante Johnson

Duwenavue Sante Johnson grew up in an environment defined less by visual language than by sound. Music was the foundation of her home life. Her father was a classical guitarist, while her mother and stepfather were blues musicians, and each generation carried its own musical tradition. Surrounded by rehearsal, performance, and lived sound, Johnson found space to move in a different direction. Rather than feeling pulled toward music, the presence of it gave her permission to explore visual art freely and without pressure.

Her relationship to art was shaped by constant movement. As a military dependent, Johnson lived in multiple places by the age of twelve, including relocating from California to Germany. That ongoing displacement created a sense of restlessness and curiosity, and visual art became a way to document and anchor herself within unfamiliar environments. While her parents carried music internally, Johnson wanted to make something tangible, something physical that could hold memory and experience across changing landscapes.

Her grandparents provided a crucial sense of grounding. In a life defined by mobility, they represented continuity and stability. Their presence connected Johnson to heritage, history, and legacy, giving her work a deeper sense of belonging. No matter where she traveled, that connection to family roots informed her understanding of purpose and responsibility within her practice.

Johnson developed her artistic skills through observation and translation rather than formal instruction. The world itself became her classroom. Concepts such as harmony, rhythm, and composition were absorbed through listening to classical guitar structures and the emotional layering of blues music, then translated into color, texture, and visual pattern. Her early education emerged from the intersection of a musical household, a military lifestyle, and the steady influence of her grandparents.

Her practice is inherently multidisciplinary, moving across hand embroidery, painting, photography, collage, and process-based work. Each medium serves a specific narrative function. Embroidery allows for tactile engagement with memory, where each stitch marks time and intention. Collage becomes a way to visualize sound and improvisation, layering ideas much like musical composition. Different stories demand different textures, and Johnson follows that logic intuitively.

Recurring symbols anchor her work. Pathways represent both literal and metaphorical journeys toward unknown futures. Fragmented shards speak to the reconstruction of history and identity, drawing strength from what has been broken. Stitches function as acts of binding and repair, linking ancestral craft to contemporary dialogue. Stars, inspired by the Thai concept of gin dao or “eating the stars,” create a dreamscape where ancestors reside and histories coexist.

Her influences are rooted in cultural legacy and responsibility. Louis Armstrong’s documentation of Black experience deeply informs her approach, as does the historical presence of Francis “Frank” Johnson, a nineteenth-century Black musician whose life and work shaped early American music. Alongside these known figures, Johnson honors the unnamed artisans and ancestors whose labor and traditions form the foundation of her practice. These influences guide her use of thread as a tool for dialogue across time.

Before creating, Johnson begins with a ritual of conceptual dreaming inspired by gin dao. This phase involves reflection, sketching, and mapping, allowing ideas to take shape before entering physical labor. Her environment functions as a silent collaborator. Studio limitations influence scale, while the world outside determines palette, rhythm, and focus. Even ambient sound becomes part of the work’s language.

Her daily practice balances dreaming and labor. Reflection gives way to stitching, painting, and assembling stories through material. When inspiration slows, Johnson turns to acts of mending and play, stitching and dismantling scraps rather than forcing new imagery. This process of repair mirrors the themes she explores and keeps her connected to perseverance.

One of her most significant projects involves a screen-printed, hand-embroidered installation for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as part of The Changing Faces of Independence: Pennsylvania in the 1800s. Researching the life of Francis Johnson and translating his musical legacy into embroidery challenged her to make sound visible through stitch. The project revealed embroidery as a bridge between inner imagination and shared historical understanding.

At the core of Johnson’s work is an exploration of weighted legacies and transformation. Her practice examines the tension between official historical narratives and personal memory, seeking balance within constant change. Craft becomes a form of dialogue, and textiles carry rhythm, history, and cultural truth.

Success, for Johnson, is measured through impact. With a background in Communication Arts and ongoing graduate studies in American History, she defines her role as a visual historian. Her work aims to foster connection, social cohesion, and recognition across communities. Looking forward, she plans to further integrate academic research with textile art, using exhibitions and curatorial work to build bridges between past and present.

She remains grounded by returning to the silence of the stitch. In a fast-moving world, hand embroidery enforces slowness and attention. The soundscapes of her childhood, the discipline of classical music, the honesty of blues, and a lifelong need to explore continue to shape her creative rhythm and vision.