Antigonish artist Linda Johns expresses her unique wisdom with grace and visionary power. She draws her viewers into a world where the fundamental forces of destruction and renewal, of rending chaos and of healing emergence, are played out in archetypal symbolic terms, in spiritual, ecological, and psychological realms. As layers of meaning are revealed in the interweaving of familiar forms, such as birds, whales, trees and shells, the viewer is afforded his or her own private renewal, a kind of wordless understanding of the elements which govern nature, and thus our lives. In the interplay between light and dark, an inherent relief quality of the linocut print, Johns builds striking, complex patterns with positive and negative reversals throughout her images. The balance of this matrix of interacting forces occurs when all energies are fused as light.


It is impossible not to notice the predominance of birds in Linda Johns' work, whether in linocut, engraving, sculpture or on large acrylic canvas. For many years Johns shared her studio/home in the woods with a robin named County, who provided the inspiration not only for her art but for "Sharing a Robin's Life," the chronicle of an unusual friendship. A variety of birds still share their lives with Johns, initiating a stream of imagery for her work.


As a professional artist, Johns is primarily self-taught, pursuing her personal exploration in art history and analysis, mythology, symbolism, and metaphysics. Her work has been shown in many galleries in Atlantic Canada and is represented in private, public and corporate collections in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.