In this episode of The Fort Builders, I sit down with artist, author, and educator Stephen T. Johnson.
Stephen’s work spans more than just one medium or one audience. From award-winning children’s books like Alphabet City, to large-scale public art installations in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas, to gallery and museum exhibitions — his work shows up in ways people experience every day.
But what stood out to me in this conversation wasn’t just the scope of his work.
It was how he thinks about creating.
Stephen uses a simple framework — Subject. Transformation. Joy.
It starts with something ordinary. Something you might walk past without noticing. And through his process — whether it’s drawing, collage, mosaic, or sculpture — he transforms it into something that makes you stop, look again, and see it differently.
That idea of transformation shows up everywhere in his work.
In his children’s books, where everyday objects become something unexpected.
In his public art, where spaces people move through every day become something more meaningful.
And in his teaching, where he helps students not just learn technique — but learn how to see. But there’s also a more personal side to this.
Toward the end of our conversation, we came back and revisited a moment Stephen mentioned earlier — being called out in class. It’s a small moment on the surface, but the kind that sticks with you. The kind that shapes confidence, awareness, and how you show up moving forward.
We ended up digging into that a little more, and it turned into a meaningful reflection on how those early experiences — even brief ones — can stay with you and influence your path in ways you don’t always recognize at the time.
We left that in as a bit of bonus conversation at the end.
Because as we talk about often on The Fort Builders, the story isn’t just what you build — it’s what built you.
And sometimes those moments are smaller, quieter, and more personal than you’d expect.
Stephen’s work is about transformation.
But like all of us… that process started somewhere.
About Stephen T. Johnson:
www.stephentjohnson.com
Stephen T. Johnson’s visually arresting and conceptually rich body of work forges connections between words, objects and ideas. His art spans a broad range of concepts and contexts and can be seen in site-specific public art commissions, gallery and museum exhibitions, and original award-winning children’s books such “Alphabet City,” a Caldecott Honor and a New York Times Best Illustrated book of the year.
His drawings and paintings are in numerous private collections including those of musician Paul Simon and actress Cherry Jones, and in the permanent collections of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut, and the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.
Among his public art is a 66-foot mosaic mural at the DeKalb Avenue Subway Station in Brooklyn New York, a 58-foot mosaic mural at the Universal City/Studio City Metro Station in Los Angeles, California, and 33 glass panels for the Dallas Love Field Airport, in Dallas, Texas.