BALTIMORE — Jen White-Johnson has been an artist since elementary school, where she loved to draw and perform, but now the Baltimore-based educator is getting a national platform to show off her colorful designs.
She's one of the artists featured in Target's special collection for Hispanic Heritage Month, which collaborates with five Latino/a creators.
White-Johnson, who grew up in Prince George's County with a Puerto Rican mother and a black father, made two products for Target that celebrate her roots: a shirt that reads "Piel canela, pelo rizado" (Cinnamon-brown skin, curly hair), and a holographic tumbler that reads "Soñando vivamente/Vividly dreaming."
The website shows the T-shirt is already sold out.
"It's completely sold out. I was like, what is happening?" White-Johnson commented with a laugh, but noted: "I knew they were going to do a limited run."
She actually had a relationship with Target already, through her former students at Bowie State University, where she used to teach. White-Johnson explained that she had the students take part in an HBCU design challenge that Target was doing for Black History Month. After that event, which was also just this year, Target approached her about taking part in Latino Heritage Month - and of course, she said yes.
She added: "Target has always really been amazing at making sure that marginalized voices have the space and have the opportunity to create artwork that specifically represents their own stories, their own narrative... It's always amazing when they choose to seek out the actual culture to create for the culture."
For her latest collaboration, on Latino Heritage Month, she said:
"I was really excited to use my art and design work specifically to tell my own story, not someone else's story."
White-Johnson pointed out that, with Latino Heritage Month, "it's important not to box artists in," because there are so many different types of Latinos and "everyone's story is going to be different."
"There's Puerto Ricans, there's Afro-Caribbeans, there's Afro-Brazilians, there's Mexicanos, there's Latin-American[s], there's Mexican-American folks that are all over the united states, all over the world."
For her part, White-Johnson grew up in Prince George's County by way of Silver Spring, and said she'd always been exposed to the food, music and culture of the many different Latinos in the area. She moved to Catonsville when she enrolled at UMBC as an undergrad, and ultimately moved to Baltimore City (first to Reservoir Hill, then the Station North area) to study graphic design at MICA, from 2008 to 2011.
She was originally interested in photography, at Prince George's Community College, but then decided to focus on graphic design at MICA. Growing up with undiagnosed ADHD, she said her "art was always very performative" and she thought she might even go into performance art. But that has changed along the way.
White-Johnson grew up with parents who were both Sunday school teachers, and who were artists in their own ways. Her dad painted and drew, and her mom "was a craft person," making little sculptures and things from items she found lying around.
"Growing up with a black father and a Puerto-Rican mother just really gave me a lot of beautiful opportunities to create relationships," she said.
Her art has also been affected by her son, now 9 years old, who was diagnosed as autistic. When that happened, she said her photo voice became really personal and vulnerable, and she wondered if she should focus more on telling her own family's stories.
She hopes her designs for Target inspires people not to be boxed into a certain category.
"I was always very much classified as, 'Are you completely black, or are you completely Latino?'" she said.
With the T-shirt, "I wanted to be very direct with saying 'Brown Skin, Curly Hair' to help uplift those really beautiful things that we're often taught that we have to erase or hide."
What's next for White-Johnson? She recently took a position at MICA teaching in the accelerated art and design program, where she said she gets a chance to work with Baltimore City high school students who are studying art. The program offers mentorship and a space for the them to create work, as well as get college credit and learn how to prepare for different art schools.
