Susan S Johnson

May 13, 1938 – March 15, 2024

Susan Johnson served as The Arts Center’s eleventh director from 1985-1992. She remained an enthusiastic participant and a gracious friend of the center for the next 30+ years.

Following Susan’s retirement, her studio artwork became an inspiration for many. Using oilbars, pastels and colored pencil her works were often informed by her travels around the world and the Northwest. As her confidence grew, so did the size of her works. Susan created, showed, and sold numerous bodies of work through the artist-owned Waterstone Gallery in Portland where she was a member and officer.

In 2020 we hosted a retrospective of Susan’s work at The Arts Center. In the Corvallis Gazette-Times feature about her lifetime in the arts, Susan invited people to “bother to look” at art, and see the world differently.

Her family has created this Life Tributes Page for sharing our memories.