M. Johnston is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans painting, collage, and mixed media installation. Her practice explores themes of memory, identity, and cultural residue through layered compositions that blur the line between abstraction and figuration. Drawing from found imagery, street iconography, personal symbolism, and gestural mark-making, Johnston creates works that are both visually rich and conceptually resonant. Her art has been exhibited in galleries such as GOH in California, HMVC in New York City, in Times Square, in Artsy, to name a few. She continues to develop her practice in Manhattan Beach, Ca, where she engages with the intersections of visual storytelling, material experimentation, and feminist narratives.
The world is crazy. And not always the good kind of crazy. My hope is that my art will transport you, if even for just a few moments, to another world. One that moves you, makes you laugh or think - or both.
One that gives you respite from a weary world.
I’ve never had a real job.
I started out as a dancer/choreographer, working in film/TV/stage with such luminaries as Madonna, Cate Blanchett, Michael Jackson, David Fincher, Brad Pitt, Andy Samberg, to name a few.
Then I expanded into writing and directing, co-creating the long running franchise of films, A Cinderella Story - writing, directing and choreographing for actors such as Selena Gomez, Sophia Carson, Jennifer Coolidge, Jane Lynch, etc.
One thing was a constant -
In my spare moments on the sets of these films and tv shows, I could be always be found in the costume trailer and the art department.
The colors; the cohesion of a particular set; the texture of the wallpaper…it all fascinated me and drew me in.
ART, in all its glorious forms, is what gets me out of bed every morning and sets my dreams afire every night.