Artwork copyright Johanna Poethig. Photo courtesy of the artist, 2024.

Old Growth, New Growth, 2024

Johanna Poethig
(American, born 1956)

Location: Chinook Elementary School, Auburn

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Old Growth, New Growth by Johanna Poethig honors traditions and learning. It is a unique composition of native plants that creates an oasis of vibrant color and growth within Chinook Elementary School. It features Pacific Northwest species such as maidenhair ferns, western sword ferns, new growth cedars, red maples, salmonberries, violet lupines, the goldfinch (Washington's State Bird), and more. Poethig highlights the arrangements of leaves on plant stems as "These patterns make visible the systems that create life." The painting is framed with wood strips painted to look like the traditional Muckleshoot cattail reed mats.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Auburn School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Johanna Poethig is a visual, public, and performance artist based in California. She reflects on human nature, society, consumerism, and our evolving relationship to the natural world in her paintings, sculptures, and installations. Her performance work includes experimental music and video, influenced by feminism and global politics.

Poethig grew up in the Philippines and has participated in Filipino-American artist collectives and Philippines-based arts projects since the 1980s. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Fine Arts degree at Mills College in Oakland, California. She is Professor Emerita at the Visual and Public Art Department, California State University, Monterey Bay. In 2022 Poethig received the California Arts Council Individual Artist Legacy Award.