{"id":3680,"date":"2023-07-12T10:26:56","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T14:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3680"},"modified":"2023-07-12T10:26:56","modified_gmt":"2023-07-12T14:26:56","slug":"cover-story-johanna-keller-an-artist-reflects-on-life-change-and-the-miracle-of-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=3680","title":{"rendered":"Cover Story – Johanna Keller: An Artist Reflects on Life, Change, and The Miracle of Art"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2015 Oscar Wilde<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

By Kate Hanzalik<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Love changes life. This is a theme Johanna Keller has explored in her many artistic performances\u2013singing songs and reciting poetry as a child, acting, studying music at University of Colorado and the American Conservatory in France, working in public relations and writing award-winning art criticism for the <\/span><\/span>New York Times<\/i><\/span><\/span>, teaching, and building Syracuse University\u2019s prestigious Goldring Arts Journalism Program from the ground up. Keller\u2019s love for the arts is the reason for all the twists and turns she\u2019s made professionally, and lately she\u2019s a novice making films, plays, and cabarets. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very fortunate in my life that I have always been able to try something new. I believe in life-long learning,\u201d she said, adding that it\u2019s important to \u201cpush the edge of what you don\u2019t know, and be unafraid to be humble and say, \u2018I don\u2019t do this very well. How would I do it better? How would I learn to do this?\u2019 And then focus on that edge. That edge that doesn\u2019t know what it is doing is the edge of myself that I\u2019m most interested in.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Keller found herself on the edge when she retired from Syracuse University in 2019. \u201cI thought when I retired that I\u2019d be swanning around the world and reviewing opera, which has to do with drama, and words, and music, things I love. But then the pandemic hit, and I said \u2018Well, I\u2019ll see what comes up.\u2019 One morning I sat down and wrote a play. And I thought to myself, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s genius!\u2019 I looked at it the next day and I thought this is horrible,\u201d she laughed. \u201cA typical experience as a writer. So the next step is, learn to do it better.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

She took online classes with the Dramatists Guild and began to use the craft as a way to explore questions such as \u201cWhat does it mean to be alive right now, in this moment? What are we experiencing?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her questions led to creations such as <\/span><\/span>Amicably, Kinda Sorta<\/i><\/span><\/span>, a short, sardonic play about divorce, which will be performed in August in Manassas, Virginia, and <\/span><\/span>The Perfect Match<\/i><\/span><\/span>, an 11-minute rom-com film about the pitfalls of online dating, which became a feature in NYC Rogue Theater Festival. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Her curiosity has also led her to artistic resources in Syracuse by joining Studio 24 and the Armory Square Playwrights Group. From there, she produced <\/span><\/span>Why Did They Get Me a Roomba?<\/i><\/span><\/span>, a holiday story performed at Jazz Central about a mother who received a robo-vacuum as a present from her absent children. As an artist making art in Syracuse, she\u2019s developed many friendships with local writers and artists, such as Gerard Moses, Peter Moller, and jazz singer Hanna Richardson.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love this town,\u201d she said. \u201cI lived in Manhattan for 25 years, and when we moved here in 2003, a lot of people thought I\u2019d miss Manhattan. But there\u2019s more to do every night here than I can get to. It\u2019s a wonderful town full of really creative, open people who are working hard at what they do.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On Collaboration<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Keller is so inspired by Syracuse that she\u2019s currently at work with Richardson on a comedy cabaret about the city set to premier in the fall. This project is particularly exciting for Keller \u2013 who has written scores of her own articles about music and composers \u2013 because she\u2019s collaborating. \u201cCollaborative writing was a skill I wanted to learn and I knew I could learn it by putting myself in the position of having to do it, or getting to do it.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Working with Richardson has been illuminating. \u201cHanna Richardson had done an amazing cabaret show a few years ago, and we were thinking of reviving that. We tried and it didn\u2019t work, so we set it aside. Then I had this idea to write a cabaret show of parody songs about Syracuse. Comic. All comic. I said to Hanna, \u2018We have to try again.\u2019\u201d At first they wrote separately and met once a week to synthesize. \u201cOne day it clicked. We just got it. We were able to drop all our defense and just let our creative selves get in the sandbox and play together.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJohanna takes her art seriously, but (at least in this case) has lots of fun doing it,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cWe\u2019ve really started hitting our stride in our joint writing sessions\u2013feeding off and appreciating each other\u2019s ideas, but also each willing to express doubts or reservations, all with trust and respect. And laughter. Lots of laughter!,\u201d she said, adding that \u201cIt\u2019s good that we also bring different areas of musical expertise to the project \u2013 Johanna has deep knowledge of theater, musical theater, opera, and the arts in general. I\u2019m knowledgeable about songs of the Great American Songbook. We both remember well the pop songs of our youth. So we have a lot of material to draw from when looking for good songs to parody.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On the Value of Art <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Keller\u2019s knowledge of the arts has forced her to grapple with its significance. She said, \u201cPeople think of the arts as being an add on, an extra thing. Think about human history\u2013and here I\u2019m talking about deep history\u2014with anthropologists and archeologists digging into our very, very ancient past. What was the first thing we did after we took care of our survival? We had enough food. We had fire. We could keep the saber tooth tigers at bay. What was the first thing we did? Beat on logs, make music, dance, tell stories, put handprints on the cave walls. The first thing we did was art.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Yet often during her own career, she wasn\u2019t as close to the arts as she would have liked. When she was in her twenties, she worked as an uninspired receptionist on Wall Street. When she landed in the music business, she eventually started her own public relations agency where she represented musicians. This led her to arts journalism, but even then, writing about the arts for prestigious publications, she wanted something more. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was doing arts journalism, I was 100 percent into that, but in the back of my mind, I thought, \u2018Oh, I miss performing. I miss theater. I miss that part of my life that I\u2019m writing about but not in.\u201d So today, she\u2019s taken the opportunity to do what has always been natural to her. \u201cStarting to write plays put me right back into the performing arts, full circle.\u201d <\/span><\/span> <\/b><\/p>\n

For women who are assessing their own careers, Keller has some advice: \u201cI see a lot of people, women in particular, sometimes taking a job or a project with someone they can\u2019t completely trust. It\u2019s never worth it. It\u2019s better to hold out and work with people you respect. At the end of the day you will go home happy. You\u2019re looking to work for people and with people who have complete integrity.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On the Day that Changed Keller\u2019s Life <\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In Keller\u2019s new radio drama<\/span><\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>The Foley Guy: A Romance, <\/i><\/span><\/span>an interviewer asks a sound engineer to talk about a day that changed his life. It was the day a beautiful cellist walked into his office fawning over the sound effects he made from unusual ingredients, like jello, cellophane, and gravel; it was the day that sparked a romance that led to a walk in the woods filled with sounds and eventually a kiss. <\/span><\/span>Resonating with so many, <\/span><\/span>The Foley Guy<\/i><\/span><\/span> won the 2023 Atlanta Fringe Festival Audio Critics\u2019 Choice Award, and received 3 of the 7 other awards, including: Best Writing, Best Mixing, and Most Creative. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

With all of Keller\u2019s success, growth, and change, it\u2019s easy to wonder if there\u2019s a day that changed her life<\/span><\/span>. According to the artist, it was the day she went to a poetry reading in New York City. It was \u201cThe first time I heard my husband read and talk. . . I heard this wonderful man with this brilliant mind and this big heart and this beautiful voice. We became friends and later we became man and wife.\u201d And so began what many appreciate about her work\u2013 an exploration of love, chemistry, what she describes as \u201cthe miracle of art.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.\u201d \u2015 Oscar Wilde By Kate Hanzalik Love changes life. This is a theme Johanna Keller has explored in her many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[708,1450,1448,1449],"class_list":["post-3680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cover-story","tag-cover-story","tag-johanna-keller","tag-july-2023","tag-theater"],"gutentor_comment":0,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/SWM-JULY-2023-web-1_page-0001.jpg?fit=1257%2C1632&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2547,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2547","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":0},"title":"COVER STORY: \u2018THE ART OF LETTING GO:\u2019 Sandra Sabene, Liverpool Arts Center","author":"Sarah Hall","date":"September 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Art has always been a haven for Sandra Fioramonti-Sabene. \u201cArt has been a way for me to check in with myself, to express just whatever I really can't put words to,\u201d she said. \u201cIt's always been that healing tool for me to be really connected with how I'm feeling, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cover Story"","block_context":{"text":"Cover Story","link":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?cat=100"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sandy-Fioramonti-0022.jpg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sandy-Fioramonti-0022.jpg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sandy-Fioramonti-0022.jpg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Sandy-Fioramonti-0022.jpg?fit=801%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2881,"url":"https:\/\/www.syracusewomanmag.com\/?p=2881","url_meta":{"origin":3680,"position":1},"title":"COVER STORY Dr. Juhanna Rogers: Creating a New Narrative","author":"Staff","date":"March 1, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"By Becca Taurisano Photos by Alice G. 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