Expression and Escapes: The Life of Marcus Johnson

EAST PEORIA — Illinois Central College student Marcus Johnson, 27, is an artist from San Francisco, California. Though he has been “making art since before grade school”, this semester is his first taking art courses.

“I love the classroom atmosphere,” said Johnson, “there’s a lot to say for the hands-on experience.” Like many artists, art is not only Johnson’s main hobby, but an escape from his reality. However, Johnson isn’t simply escaping his monotonous daily routines or temporary boredoms. Like Johnson’s art itself, what he is escaping with it is what makes him a unique artist.

In March 2007, Marcus Johnson was sent to prison, and was incarcerated for almost seven years. Released in May 2013, he is currently an inmate and resident at the Peoria Adult Transition Center, where he is part of a work- release program. He is scheduled to be released from PATC in early 2014.

The prison experience has had profound effects on him, but has provided an opportunity to focus on his passion.

“I watched the world go by on television,” Johnson recalled, “and I used art to escape that reality, to keep me sane.” A time of his life he compares to “a life of a soldier in war,” Johnson spent most of his prison days drawing and escaping. “What began as just my talent in later years became my sanctuary from all the chaos I witnessed and experienced during my incarceration.”

Johnson certainly has something to show for these escapes. His art, which consists of graphic novels, comics and portraits, among other forms, uniquely mixes realism with animation and subtly provokes the viewer. His specialty is hyperrealistic art, that is, art that is highly detailed and highly colorful. “I’m a shy guy, but I like my art to scream out at you. I try to make anything I draw have a message to it.”

One of Johnson’s most prominent messages is in a piece he did not create in prison, his recent midterm self-portrait. Like his classmates’ portraits, Johnson’s is a relatively simple, black- and-white pencil sketch of his own face.

What differentiates the piece, perhaps, is the profundity of the meaning behind the face he gives. “When people meet me, they say I look pissed off or upset. That’s because I’ve been through a lot in my life these past seven years. The day Ms. Tuccillo, my teacher, took the picture, I had no clue I was smiling at all,” Johnson said, “but I do remember the thoughts that were rolling around in my head. Of how, because of my exceptional artistic talent over the years, art became my refuge for my mind and soul which helped me to maintain my sanity. It allowed me to express thoughts and emotions that sometimes I couldn’t utter with words. Allowing me to construct windows into the abyss of my mind where creativity constantly boiled. Its an expression which is stuck on my face because of nearly a decade of pent up rage and frustration with myself and how people are treated when their incarcerated.”

With this in mind, Johnson has enjoyed his time creating and showcasing his art at ICC, trying to appreciate every moment. “Some days I come in here and I feel like a lot of people take for granted the amenities they have, the natural freedoms they have,” Johnson said, “I just have to remember they’ve worked hard too. I have to stay humble.” What many of us take for granted, as Johnson puts it, “just may be a treasure to somebody else.”

As stated, Johnson will be released from his transition program in 2014. Afterwards, he plans on making a career out of his artwork, hopefully showcasing it in his hometown of San Francisco. He has recently submitted some of his pieces to both Marvel and DC, the world’s largest and most known comic publishers. He has heard back from the former, and will potentially take a job doing “splash pages” for their comics in the near future.

Today, Johnson is a productive member of society and an ever- improving artist and individual. As he “mixes realism with animation” in his art, he does so, quite well, in his everyday life; Marcus Johnson’s troubled past will not affect his beautiful future.