Living Barbados Magazine November 2014 Edition November 2014 edition | Page 85

PERSON OF INTEREST
By Laura Lin Hutchinson
Photography By Khalil Goodman

Guni
Johnson
G

uni Johnson, has been creating extraordinary mosaics for
some 13 years. She rediscovered this particular medium
first with the construction of a series of brilliant otherworldly collages which were exhibited at the Future Centre Trust
after which she created a life size mosaic turtle for the front steps
of that establishment. Little did she know at the time that this
was the start of a journey of discovery that would lead to her
becoming the supreme mosaic artist she now is.
Known by many simply as Guni, she is a small framed, slim,
sturdy woman with a beehive crown of grey streaked, golden
locks. Her pale blue eyes are surrounded by fine lines, mapping
a life of struggle, survival and success….of love and laughter.
She has strong hands, with blunt fingers and a firm grip. She is
aged but ageless. She has raised five grown children and is a
grandmother of two who keep her young minded. She came to
Barbados in 1980 to work and stayed, like so many others who
found the contrast to life in Europe so appealing.
As a child growing up in Germany she spent long hours in the
countryside, while her father went hunting she would immerse
herself in nature, watching birds and studying insects and even
then, collecting found objects. This developed into a lifelong
fascination with archeology and indigenous peoples and later she
briefly studied animal psychology while attending a seminar in
Frankfurt Zoo. She is a woman who has broken in wild Arabian
stallions and has memories of riding across the Algarve, hair flying

in the wind. She can give you information like how sweet potatoes
got to the Easter Islands and how Inca gold came to Romania.
It was this love of nature and a curious and free spirit that
eventually led to the Caribbean and embracing the Rastafarian
culture. Through the years her creativity grew from making the
most finely executed beaded jewelry to fantastic collages to the
magnificent mosaics.
Before actually making mosaics, Guni had been collecting shells
and coloured beach glass for years and storing them in crocus
bags, intuiting that she would someday need them for ‘something’.
Her early pieces were mostly beach glass. Then she found a rock
tumbling machine at an auction sale which came with a huge
collection of rocks. She could now create her own beach glass
effect. She is still using the same machine smoothing, tumbling
and polishing rocks, stones, shells, glass, coral etc., the early part
of the process before they are then assembled, stuck, grouted and
transformed into truly awesome works of art, some as big as 8ft,
which now grace many private homes, villas, hotels and restaurants.
Each phase -sourcing and collecting, sorting and storing,
cleaning, tumbling, cutting, placing, joining, gluing, grouting,
cleaning, polishing is an entire enterprise in itself. Each step is
approached and completed with great method and patience and
joy. This is not work for the weak willed. It requires courageous
creative vision, intuition, formidable determination, eyes like a
hawk, deft hands, a meticulous touch, serious concentration and a
LIVING BARBADOS NOVEMBER 2014 - MARCH 2015

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