No Evil Project
Troy B. Thompson, Creator and Executive Director.
AJ Leto, President
Ali Kane, Vice President
The No Evil Project is a nonprofit organization that uses art to challenge stereotypes in a fun way by giving a wide variety of people a voice to show how they are doing good things in the community and are not defined by their labels.
Each participant poses as the Three Wise Monkeys, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil; picks three labels that describe themselves; and writes a good thing they’ve done to show they’re “not evil”. We have photographed over 7,500 people at companies, colleges, high schools, festivals, and organizations.
Participating helps us question our own labels, biases, and stereotypes, without the defensiveness these topics traditionally cause; and seeing the photos and stories of others humanizes the labels we may not relate to, helps us find things in common with them, challenges our assumptions, and starts new conversations.
Our next major exhibit is at the Fitchburg Art Museum and will run from December 3rd 2018 to January 29th 2019. It will feature people that live, work, and play in the Fitchburg area. We encourage everyone to be a part of the exhibit by attending a public photo shoot, or having us come to their business or organization.
See the exhibit page at https://www.noevilproject.com/exhibits/fitchburg-art-museum to see upcoming photo shoots and learn more about the project.
Howard Johnson: Phantastrophies
HOWARD JOHNSON, WISHCRAFT, 2018, 18 X 24 X ¾", PRISMACOLOR, GRAPHITE, INK PEN, CRAYONS, AND VARIOUS PAPERS MOUNTED ON AMPERSAND STAGED BOARD
Howard Johnson: Phantastrophies
Howard Johnson, a life-long resident of Worcester, Massachusetts, is one of the most original and distinctive artists working in New England today. His artwork has often been described as “visionary,” and indeed he has spent his entire career creating images of things that most of the rest of us could never see, or even imagine.
Johnson’s visions are informed by his deep interests in avenues of intellectual and creative pursuit that attempt to understand, or at least describe, phenomena at the furthest reaches of human comprehension–myth, legend, religion, occult and arcane philosophical systems (like alchemy), science fiction and fantasy, and the search for extraterrestrials.
His drawings of other beings, other worlds, and other states of mind seem like pictures grabbed from dreams or hallucinations. They depict shallow, claustrophobic spaces of indeterminate scale, crowded with dense mobs of monsters and aliens, accompanied by objects and symbols borrowed from both American popular culture and ancient rituals. The creatures shift, intertwine, and focus their unsettling attention directly on us.
These fantastic scenes are made palpable and emotionally powerful by Johnson’s prodigious aesthetic technique. For many years, he has been a master draftsman, with a virtuoso command of line. More recently, he has added color to his artistic arsenal to make his images both richly attractive and creepily repulsive. Johnson is also a student of art history, and has closely studied Pablo Picasso, the Surrealists, Hieronymus Bosch, and other artists who have shared his penchant for the bizarre. To this mix he adds sensuality, a dark humor, and curious titles that serve only to deepen the mystery of his apparitions.
Nick Capasso
FAM Director