Raised in Kansas City, Mo., Carmen Cartiness Johnson is a self-taught acrylic painter. Her early work of flat, colored, graphic shapes is based on summer visits to her grandmother’s farm. Her later paintings progressed to a more dimensional painterly style. Johnson’s narrative art takes a snapshot of people interacting in social situations. The inspiration for her vivid paintings comes from poems, songs, novels, media, as well as the works of Romare Bearden and Diego Rivera.
Thursday marked the first night of the resurrected La Semana Alegre music festival, which featured amazing performances from artists including Toadies, Girl…