Miami Hamilton Students in the Spotlight: Johnna Roark, Artist

March 15, 2007

Assigned a sculpture project in art class with a theme of TIME, Junior art major, Johnna Roark was at first intimidated, then inspired by the undertaking.  She chose to borrow the style of Hungarian artist, Christo, who is known for wrapping famous building, bridges, fountains and other projects throughout the world.  Someone very near and dear to her heart also served as an inspiration.

“My boyfriend is attending college in Florida.”  She explains.  “So, obviously I don’t get to see him much.  College students have to devote a lot of time to their studies and sometimes that means being away from our families and friends.  For a lot of students, that time away is because of distance.”

That thought became the crux of her TIME project.

“I knew I wanted to wrap something big,” Roark explains.  “And, trees are big.  Also, I’ve always been interested in maps—the colors and lines—so I wanted to incorporate maps into the sculpture.”

The result was a very symbolic, creative work of art.

“The trees represent growth over time and the stability of families, friends and relationships students will return to when their time in school is finished.  One tree represents Ohio and the other, Florida and the maps are wrapped around the trees.  The maps represent the distance that can separate students from their families as well as the time they spend away from them.  The Ohio tree is marked ‘I am here’ and the Florida tree, ‘You are there’.  The two trees are then joined together by a red string of yarn.”

Roark realizes not everyone is going to identify with the sculpture in the same way.

“I hope those who saw the sculpture, whatever their interpretation, took something away with them.”

Art has always been Roark's passion

Roark says she’s always been into art and, as a child was usually found drawing.  At age 12, she went through what she calls her ‘origami’ stage.

“I’m interested in all forms of art—photography, print making, sculpture—I like to try a little bit of everything.  I like to work a lot with construction paper and right now, I’m experimenting with air brushing, which I really enjoy.”

Keeping her options open

Roark hasn’t settled on a definite career yet, but is looking at all her options.

“I haven’t really decided what I’m going to do.  I keep changing my mind as I experiment with different forms of art.  I’d like to eventually get a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and mix that with art and film studies.  Maybe make a documentary film about the different cultures in the world.  I’m also interested in body art…tattooing.  There are many cultures where body ornaments are very popular, so I could conceivably merge anthropology, art and film studies into one documentary.”

In the meantime, Roark is determined to continue her education.

“I want to dip into everything.  I want to be always learning…always creating.”