Celebrating Skip Johnson

C.R. "Skip" Johnson died last week. His family and friends gathered to celebrate his life on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2009, at the Johnson Farmstead, where the late artist himself welcomed his tribe to annual Syttende Mai parties. It is a reflection of Skip -- his good humor, his sense of mischief and fun, his affection for life, his creative impulse -- that this gathering was at least as joyful as it was sad. You can't think of Skip -- the extraordinary works of art he crafted from wood (including imaginative furniture but also astonishing flights of sculptural fancy), his fondness for carrying a bottle of beer in his back pocket, his phenomenal aptitude for dancing, his mirth and joie de vivre -- without understanding his friends' and family's instict to rejoice, revel and raise a little hell more than mourn. Skip lived 81 years by the clock but countless more than that by spirit and enthusiasm. Thus, while there were indeed tears shed Saturday, there were also smiles galore, toasts and cheers....