Born and raised in Haverhill, Massachusetts, I began studying oil painting at age nine, with Haverhill artist Grace Walburg, and by age 14, with Robert Scott Jackson of Newburyport. In 1986, I graduated from The New England School of Art & Design in Boston. Upon graduation, I became a freelance artist working as an illustrator, graphic designer, and painter. My work included book covers, advertising illustration and commissioned oil paintings.

In 1988, on Cape Cod, I was hired as the technical illustrator for a group that was excavating The Whydah, a pirate ship that sank in 1717, off the coast of Wellfleet Beach. I spent my days drawing everything from shoe buckles and silver coins, to gun parts and cannons. These drawings are currently used for museum display, book illustrations and record keeping.

Seeking a new direction in 1990, I began a seven year career in the healthcare industry in Florida. As a Recreation Director in nursing homes, I was involved with residents that ranged from young adults to the geriatric population. Most of my time was spent within the Alzheimer’s ward, where I developed and instructed programs including therapeutic art projects, musical programs with the guitar, memory retention exercises, and one-to-one sensory stimulation for end-stage Alzheimer‘s residents.

In the fall of 1997, I began my career as a teacher, by instructing drawing and painting classes for children and adults, from a studio in Plaistow, New Hampshire. I also began an eight year career at Minuteman Regional High School in Lexington, Massachusetts. I developed the high school visual arts curriculum and instructed the classes for freshman through senior students. I also instructed courses for adults and children within Minuteman’s Adult Education Department and Summer School Program.

Another aspect of my work at Minuteman was with their Special Education Department as a Vocational Liaison, which included counseling, monitoring and advising freshman through senior students, in need of additional support and services.

In the fall of 2005, following many years studying and working as an artist, seven years in the healthcare industry, and eight years in the public school system, I began the pursuit of my lifelong dream, by opening Johnson School of Art.

- Don Johnson