This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

Emery
Emery Band Picture 2011
Background information
Origin	Rock Hill, South Carolina, U.S.
Genres	Post-hardcore,[1] melodic hardcore,[2] emo,[1][3] hard rock,[4] alternative rock[5]
Years active	2001—present
Labels	Solid State, Tooth & Nail
Associated acts	Aaron Sprinkle, Fair, I Am Waldo, Devinitely, The Water and the Well, Devin Shelton
Website	emerymusic.com
Members
Toby Morrell Matt Carter Josh Head Dave Powell
Past members
Devin Shelton Seth Studley Joel Green Joey Svendsen

Emery is an American four-piece post-hardcore band from Seattle, Washington currently signed to Solid State Records (a division of Tooth & Nail Records). Emery was founded in Rock Hill, South Carolina by Toby Morrell, Devin Shelton, Matt Carter, Josh Head, Joel Green and Seth Studley, and moved to Seattle in order to reach a more music centered scene.

Before signing with Tooth & Nail Records, Emery recorded two EPs, The Columbus EEP Thee and The Weak's End demo that they used to attract attention from labels. With Tooth & Nail, they have recorded four studio albums, and two EPs. The Weak's End, their debut album, was released in 2004, followed by The Question in 2005 and I'm Only A Man in 2007. The latter fulfilled Emery's contract with Tooth & Nail. However, the band re-signed with the label and released ...In Shallow Seas We Sail on June 2, 2009. The band's most recent album, We Do What We Want, was released on March 29, 2011.

History[link]

Formation and Early Years (2000 – 2001)[link]

Emery formed in 2001 in Rock Hill, South Carolina but moved to Seattle, Washington in search of a better musical environment. The band was named after a first grader that Toby Morrell met while working as an intern for a teacher in college. The four members in the band at the time, Toby Morrell (vocals/guitar), Devin Shelton (drums), Matt Carter (guitar/keyboards), and Joel "Chopper" Green (bass) actually left Rock Hill, South Carolina for Seattle on September 11, the day of the terrorist attacks; they found out about the attacks when they stopped at a local diner in South Carolina. Most of the members are from the bands Sachul, Joe 747, Simply Waynes and Oogie Brown.^{[citation needed]} After a little while Seth Studley, who was one of the original members of the band, broke out of a serious relationship and followed them to Seattle and resumed his post as drummer. Since Seth took over drums, Devin went ahead and took the position of guitarist.

[edit] The Weak's End (2002 – 2004)

After making Emerald City their new home in Seattle, Washington, Emery signed a record deal with Tooth & Nail Records, also of Seattle, in 2002.^[6] Wasting no time, Emery paired up with producer/engineer Ed Rose and worked on their debut album, The Weak's End. It was produced at the Black Lodge Studio in Eudora, Kansas.^[7] The record was released in January 2004 by Tooth & Nail Records. Emery toured extensively to promote their new release.

[edit] The Question (2005 – 2006)

While touring, Seth Studley decided to leave the band in order to get married and Emery had to look for a new drummer.^[8] While touring with Haste the Day, Dave Powell was brought out to audition. Powell was officially put in the band on November 2005. Powell originally played in the Indianapolis-based metalcore/hardcore band The Bowels of Judas.

Soon after touring, Emery went back into the studio to record their next record with production done by Aaron Sprinkle this time around. The band took five weeks in recording sessions. The Question was released on August 2, 2005. "Studying Politics" was released as the album's first single with a video emerging on June 29, 2005.^[9] On November 21, 2006, Emery re-released The Question, adding a DVD, five acoustic versions of previously recorded songs and two new demo tracks, which were produced by Matt Carter. The DVD included a documentary film of Emery, live songs and bonus footage.

After the re-release, Joel "Chopper" Green decided to leave the band. On September 19, 2006, Emery posted a blog on their website explaining the departure.^[10] Devin and Toby have now switched bass parts in concerts and in the studio.

[edit] I'm Only A Man (2007 – 2008)

While touring with Underoath in Australia, Emery announced that they were releasing a new album. The album, I'm Only A Man, leaked onto the internet before its official release on October 2, 2007. The album was produced by Ryan Boesch and Matt Carter and recorded at Dark Horse Studio in Tennessee. It received mixed reviews. Emery released a deluxe edition of the album as well, which featured four acoustic songs that were recorded while on the Take Action Tour with The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and DVD with a live footage and a documentary. The iTunes version of the deluxe edition also added a bonus track called "Whoa! Man".

[edit] While Broken Hearts Prevail and ...In Shallow Seas We Sail (2008 – 2010)

Emery announced in an interview on TVU that they finished a new 8-track EP entitled While Broken Hearts Prevail, which was released on October 28, 2008. They began premiering some of the new material while on tour opening for The Almost, including a song entitled "Edge Of The World."

In an interview with Toby Morrell, Emery announced that would be releasing a new album called ...In Shallow Seas We Sail. Up until the announcement of Emery resigning to Tooth & Nail Records, it was unsure if the band would seek a new label, since their contract had expired.^[11] They re-signed with Tooth & Nail and soon gave out information on their new release.

On April 7, 2009, Emery released a new song entitled "Cutthroat Collapse" on their Myspace, Purevolume, and iTunes. On May 29, 2009, Emery put ...In Shallow Seas We Sail in its entirety up on their Myspace. On June 2, 2009, ...In Shallow Seas We Sail was officially released. Emery also confirmed during a chat thread on AbsolutePunk that their first music video off of the new album was going to be "Cutthroat Collapse".^[12]

During their headlining U.S. tour, Emery had selected dates filmed for a DVD in the works. The release date is unknown at this time. Emery set out on tour supporting Underoath on their fall/winter headlining tour for the rest of the year. In the summer of 2010 they went on the "Scream it Like You Mean it" tour with Silverstein, Ivoryline, Dance Gavin Dance, We Came as Romans, Sky Eats Airplane, and I Set My Friends On Fire.^[13]

[edit] We Do What We Want and Ten Years (2011-present)

On January 26, 2011 it was announced that the band's fifth album We Do What We Want is set to be released on March 29, 2011.^[14] The band also released a clip of a song titled "Scissors".^[15] Another song titled "Curse of Perfect Days" has been released to Christian rock radio stations.^[16]

On January 31, 2011, vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and bassist Devin Shelton announced he was taking an "indefinite hiatus" from Emery.

I just wanted to let you all know that I am taking an indefinite hiatus from Emery. This has been a very tough decision for me, since Emery has been an important part of my life for over a decade. I'm not saying I will never do anything else with Emery, but things change and life goes on, no matter how much I will miss it. Thanks so much for all your support over the years and I hope everyone continues to follow Emery all the same.

—Devin Shelton, Emery's Facebook page

On February 1, 2011 a song titled "The Cheval Glass" was released on the band's Facebook, YouTube and Myspace page.^[17] On February 17, 2011, the band announced that We Do What We Want would be released through both Tooth & Nail and their hardcore/metal subdivision Solid State Records reflecting the heavier sound of the album. “Lyrically I think this is our most personal, spiritual album. It talks about our faith and God, but it never gets too preachy, because it's basically talking about me and things I've gone through,” shares Morrell. “I can't not tell the truth of who I am, and this time I explored that even further—just points in my life, or in the other guys' lives. Some lyrics are about challenging authority and God, and is God real, and what that even means.” ^[18]

Emery will be headlining the "Do What You Want" tour alongside the bands To Speak of Wolves, and Hawkboy (formerly As Cities Burn).^{[citation needed]} While on tour, the band has announced that they would be coming out with an acoustic album.^{[citation needed]} On March 28, 2011, Emery released a stream of their new album We Do What We Want on AOL.com.^{[citation needed]}

On May 9, 2011 Emery released a music video for the song "The Cheval Glass".^{[citation needed]} On August 9 they released a music video for the song "Scissors".^[19]

On October 18, 2011 Emery released Ten Years, a compilation album gleaned from Emery's first four albums.

Style[link]

While the band avoid the stigma of being labeled a "Christian band," the members are all Christian, exploring a wide variety of lyrical themes in their music.^{[citation needed]} The band sound varies between post-hardcore,^[1] melodic hardcore,^[2] emo,^[1][3] hard rock,^[4] alternative rock^[5], and most recently metalcore.^[20]

Side projects[link]

• Toby Morrell has a current side project entitled I Am Waldo. The music is based on the book of Psalms and is mostly acoustic.^[21]
• Devin Shelton's current side project is called Devinitely. His music is mostly R&B and was made using Garageband.^[22]
• Devin Shelton is also working on a solo album at SCP Recording Studios in Illinois hopefully to be released sometime in 2011!^{[23][not in citation given]}
• Toby Morrell and Matt Carter have a Christian acoustic electronic project called The Water and the Well. They expect a release in the spring/summer of 2011 via Tooth & Nail Records.^[24][25]

Discography[link]

• The Weak's End (2004)
• The Question (2005)
• I'm Only a Man (2007)
• ...In Shallow Seas We Sail (2009)
• We Do What We Want (2011)

Members[link]

Line-ups[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emery (band)

• Emery's Official Website
  • Emery biography
• Emery (band) at Allmusic
• Interview @ SHOUT! Music Webzine
• Emery interview at AbsolutePunk.net

Look up emery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Emery may refer to:

• Emery (mineral)
  • Emery paper
  • Emery board, nail filers
• Emery (band), a post-hardcore band from Rock Hill, South Carolina
• Emery Theatre, a historic multi-purpose theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Emery Worldwide, a cargo airline

People[link]

• Emery (name), people with the given or surname
• Carlo Emery, an Italian entomologist
• Unai Emery, a Spanish football manager

Places[link]

United States

• Emery, Arizona
• Emery, Illinois
• Emery, Iowa
• Emery, Michigan
• Emery, North Carolina, in Montgomery County
• Emery, Pennsylvania - two locations:
  • Emery, Fayette County, Pennsylvania
  • Emery, Washington County, Pennsylvania
• Emery, South Dakota, a city in Hanson County
• Emery, Toronto, a neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada
• Emery County, Utah
  • Emery, Utah, a town in Emery County, Utah
• Emery, Wisconsin, a town in Price County

See also[link]

• Emory (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Maurice John Vaughn (born May 10, 1952)^[1] is an American blues musician from Chicago, Illinois. He is a guitarist, saxophonist, keyboardist and singer.

Biography[link]

Vaughn began playing professionally in 1968 as a saxophonist in Chicago R&B groups. He recorded with The Chosen Few in 1976, and played and recorded with Phil Guy, went on tour in Canada in 1979. He played as a sideman with Luther Allison, Son Seals, Junior Wells, Valerie Wellington, and A.C. Reed.^[2]

His debut solo record was 1984's Generic Blues Album, released in plain white packaging on his own Reecy Records record label; Alligator Records reissued it in 1987.^[2] In the 1990s, Vaughn played with Detroit Junior, but spent much of his time working in A&R for Appaloosa Records, and produced albums by Shirley Johnson, Zoom, Maxine Carr, B.J. Emery, and Velvet McNair. Vaughn and his band backed up Detroit Junior on the latter's two releases on Blue Suit Records, "Turn Up The Heat" and "Take Out The Time." In 1994, his song "(Everything I Do) Got To Be Funky" was released on the soundtrack for the film Major League II. The song was also a part of his 1993 release, In the Shadow of the City.

Discography[link]

• Generic Blues Album (Reecy Records, 1984; reissued Alligator Records)
• In the Shadow of the City (Alligator, 1993)
• Dangerous Road (Blue Suit, 2001)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Maurice John Vaughn at Allmusic

John Vaughn

Vaughn in a 2004 Tiger Walk
No. --     Free Agent
Placekicker
Personal information
Date of birth: (1984-06-15) June 15, 1984 (age 28)
Place of birth: Brentwood, Tennessee
Height: 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) Weight: 205 lb (93 kg)
Career information
College: Auburn
Undrafted in 2007
No regular season or postseason appearances
Career history
Tennessee Titans (2007)* Orlando Predators (2008) Tennessee Titans (2008)* *Offseason and/or practice squad member only
Roster status: Active
Career highlights and awards
Auburn University's All Time Leading Scorer (312) First-team All-SEC (2006) SEC Special Teams P.O.Y. (2006) Lou Groza Award runner-up (2006)
Career NFL statistics
Stats at NFL.com

John Vaughn (born June 15, 1984 in Nashville is an American football placekicker. He was signed by the Titans as an undrafted free agent in 2007. He played college football at Auburn.

College career[link]

In the 2006 season, Vaughn was named the SEC Special Teams Player of the Year and was a Lou Groza Award finalist. His 42-yard Cotton Bowl Classic field goal was his twentieth made out of twenty-four attempts for a 83.3% on the season and made him just the second Auburn kicker ever to complete twenty or more field goals in a single season. Vaughn had new career long field goals in consecutive weekends with a 52-yarder against Washington State and a 55-yarder against Mississippi State. Twice during the season he completed four field goals in a single game — in wins against Washington State and the eventual BCS Champion Florida Gators. He is one of the best kickers in Auburn history.

Vaughn kicks the Cotton Bowl Classic game-winning field goal.

Vaughn holds more Auburn University records than any other kicker. Vaughn finished his Auburn career with 162 extra-point conversions (out of 163 attempts), a school record and third best in SEC history. He also converted 50 field goals for a 72.5% success rate. Vaughn's career total of 312 points made him the Auburn career-scoring leader ahead of Bo Jackson and Carnell Williams, and ranks tied for 12th in SEC history. Vaughn was the leading scorer on the undefeated 2004 SEC Champion team. Vaughn never had a kick blocked in his entire 4 your career at Auburn University. While Vaughn will arguably be remembered for his failed attempts against LSU in 2005 which cost Auburn the game, Vaughn rebounded and only missed 5 kicks the rest of his college career. ESPN College Gameday did special segment on Vaughn to share his story. He is also remembered for a game winning field goal in 2005 that beat Georgia 31-30 with 0:06 remaining in the game.

In 2008, Vaughn was inducted into The Great American Rivalry High School Football Hall of Fame. Vaughn holds several state records in the TSSAA. His 39 career field goals is a Tennessee State Record and ranks him tied for 4th in national high school football history.

In 2010, John Vaughn was voted as the kicker for the Auburn All Decade team of the 2000s.

Awards and honors[link]

• Auburn University's All Time Leading Scorer with 312 points until broken by Wes Byrum in 2010
• Auburn All Decade team 2000's
• Lou Groza Award Finalist (Runner Up)
• SEC Special Teams Player of the Year
• Pro Football Weekly Honorable Mention All-American
• SI.com Honorable Mention All-American
• Coaches All-SEC First Team
• Associated Press All-SEC First Team
• Scout.com All-SEC First Team
• Preseason Coaches Third-Team All-SEC
• 2006 Hartman Award Winner awarded to the Southeast's most outstanding special teams player
• 2007 Shug Jordan Award Winner given to Auburn's most outstanding senior football player

Professional career[link]

First stint with Titans[link]

Vaughn went undrafted in the 2007 NFL Draft but signed as an undrafted free agent with the Tennessee Titans on April 30, 2007. He was released from the Titans after Tennessee's 3rd Pre-season game

Orlando Predators[link]

John Vaughn was signed by the Orlando Predators of the AFL in February 2008. One of the most productive newcomers to the Orlando Predators Vaughn beat out Jay Davis to become the Predators starting kicker as a rookie. Hit a 33 yard game winning field goal against the Columbus Destroyers as time expired.

Second stint with Titans[link]

Vaughn was re-signed by the Titans on July 31, 2008.

Vaughn handled all kicking responsibilities for the Titans in the 2008 preseason. Going 7-9 on field goals, Vaughn connected on a 33 yard game winning field goal as time expired to beat the Oakland Raiders.

Vaughn was cut by the Tennessee Titans in the final roster cuts to make place for All-Pro Kicker Rob Bironas, a former Auburn kicker himself.

External links[link]

• Auburn Tigers bio
• Orlando Predators bio
• Tennessee Titans bio

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (February 2011)

Raymond Edward Johnson (1927–1995), known primarily as a collagist and correspondence artist, was a seminal figure in the history of Neo-Dada and early Pop art. Once called “New York’s most famous unknown artist",^[1] Johnson also staged and participated in early performance art events associated with the Fluxus movement and was the founder of a far-ranging mail art network – the New York Correspondence School - which picked up momentum in the 1960s and is still active today. He lived in New York City from 1949 to 1968, when he moved to a small town in Long island and remained there until his suicide.

Early Years and Education[link]

Born in Detroit, Michigan, on October 16, 1927, Ray Johnson grew up in a working class neighborhood and attended an occupational high school where he was enrolled in the advertising art program. He took weekly classes at the Detroit Art Institute and spent a summer drawing at Ox-Bow School in Saugatuck, Michigan, affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago.

Johnson left Detroit after high school in the summer of 1945 to attend the radically progressive Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he stayed for the next three years (spending the spring 1946 semester at the Art Students League in New York but returning the following summer). Josef Albers, before and after his notable sabbatical in Mexico, was in residence at Black Mountain College for six of the ten semesters that Johnson studied there. Anni Albers, Walter Gropius, Lyonel Feininger, Robert Motherwell, Ossip Zadkine, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Ilya Bolotowski, Jacob Lawrence, Beaumont Newhall, M.C. Richards, and Jean Varda also taught at BMC during Johnson’s time there. Johnson decided on Albers’ advice to stay at BMC for a final term in summer 1948, when the visiting faculty included John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Buckminster Fuller, and Richard Lippold. Johnson took part in “The Ruse of Medusa” – the culmination of Cunningham’s Satie Festival - with Cage, Cunningham, Fuller, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Lippold, Ruth Asawa, Arthur Penn, and others among the cast and crew. “Because of those who participated, the event has taken on the reputation of a watershed event in ‘mixed media’…” wrote Martin Duberman in his history of BMC.^[2]

New York Years[link]

Johnson moved with Richard Lippold to New York City by early 1949, rejoining Cage and Cunningham and befriending, within the next couple of years, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Cy Twombly, Ad Reinhardt, Stanley Vanderbeek, Norman Solomon, Lucy Lippard, Sonja Sekula, Carolyn Brown and Earle Brown, Judith Malina, Diane Di Prima, Julian Beck, Remy Charlip, James Waring, and innumerable others. With the American Abstract Artists group, Johnson painted geometric abstractions that, in part, reflected the influence of Albers. But by 1953 he turned to collage and left the American Abstract Artists, rejecting his early paintings, which he would later burn in Cy Twombly’s fireplace. Johnson began to create small, irregularly shaped works incorporating fragments from popular culture, most notably the Lucky Strikes logo and images from fan magazines of such movie stars as Elvis Presley, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley Temple. In the summer of 1955, he coined a term for these small collages: “moticos”. He carried boxes of moticos around New York, showing them on sidewalks, at cafes, in Grand Central Station and other public places; he asked passersby what they thought of them, and recorded some of their responses. He began mailing collages to friends and strangers, along with a series of manifestos, mimeographed for distribution, including “What is a Moticos?”, excerpts of which were published in an article by John Wilcock in the inaugural issue of the Village Voice.^[3]

A friend of Ray’s, art critic Suzi Gablik, brought photographer Elisabeth Novick to document an installation of dozens Johnson’s moticos in autumn of 1955. (Most of these were destroyed or recycled by the artist.) “The random arrangement … on a dilapidated cellar door in Lower Manhattan may even have been the first informal Happening,” she recalled later.^[4] According to Henry Geldzahler, “[Ray’s] collages ‘Elvis Presley No. 1’ and ‘James Dean’ stand as the Plymouth Rock of the Pop movement.”.^[5] Ray’s friend Lucy Lippard would later write that “The Elvis … and Marilyn Monroe [collages]… heralded Warholian Pop.” ^[6] Johnson was quickly recognized as part of the nascent Pop generation. A note about the cover image in January 1958’s Art News pointed out that “[Jasper] Johns’ first one-man show … places him with such better-known colleagues as Rauschenberg, Twombly, Kaprow and Ray Johnson”.^[7]

Johnson worked part-time at the Orientalia Bookstore in the Lower East Side as he began to deepen his understanding of Zen philosophy and to employ "chance" in his work. Both of these interests increasingly informed his collages, performances, and mail art. Johnson also found occasional work as a graphic designer. He had met Andy Warhol by 1956; both designed several book covers for New Directions and other publishers. Johnson had a series of whimsical flyers advertising his design services printed via offset lithography, and began mailing these out. These were in joined in 1956-7 by two small promotional artists’ books, BOO/K/OF/THE/MO/NTH and P/EEK/A/BOO/K/OFTHE/WEE/K, self-published in editions of 500.

Johnson participated in about a dozen performance art events between 1957 and 1963 – in his own short pieces ("Funeral Music for Elvis Presley" and "Lecture on Modern Music"), in those of others (by James Waring and Susan Kaufman), and via his own compositions performed by his colleagues at The Living Theatre and during the Fluxus Yam Festival of 1963. From 1961 on, Johnson periodically staged events he called "Nothings", described to his friend William Wilson as “an attitude as opposed to a happening”, which would parallel the “Happenings” of Allan Kaprow and later Fluxus events. The first of these, "Nothing by Ray Johnson", was part of a weekly series of events in July 1961 at AG, a venue in New York operated by George Maciunas and Almus Salcius; Yoko Ono’s first solo show was on view in the gallery at the time. Ed Plunkett later recalled entering an empty room. “… Visitors began to enter the premises. Most of them looked quite dismayed that nothing was going on … Well, finally Ray arrived … and he brought with him a large corrugated cardboard box of wooden spools. Soon after arriving Ray emptied this box of spools down the staircase … with these … one had to step cautiously to avoid slipping … I was delighted with this gesture.” ^[8] Johnson’s Second Nothing took place at Maidman Playhouse, New York, in 1962.

Johnson’s first known piece of mail directing a recipient to "please send to..." someone else dates from 1958; the phrases "please add to and return", “please add and send to”, and even “please do not send to” followed. Johnson’s mail art activities became more systematic with the help of several friends, particularly Bill Wilson and his mother, assemblage artist May Wilson, along with Marie Tavroges Stilkind and Toby Spiselman. In 1962, Ed Plunkett named Johnson’s endeavors ‘the New York Correspondence School’. On April 1, 1968, the first of the meeting of the NYSC was held at the Society of Friends Meeting House on Rutherford Place in New York City. Two more meetings were called by Johnson in the following weeks, including the Seating-Meeting at New York’s Finch College, about which John Gruen reported: “It was … attended by many artists and ‘members’ … all of whom sat around wondering when the meeting would start. It never did … people wrote things on bits of paper, on a blackboard, or simply talked. It was all strangely meaningless – and strangely meaningful.” ^[9] Johnson staged such events regularly, often following them up with witty typed reports, photocopied for wide distribution via the post. Such gatherings continued to be held in various guises into the mid-1980s.

Johnson produced the 12 known unbound pages of his enigmatic BOOK ABOUT DEATH in 1963-5. Consisting of cryptic texts and drawings (mostly) by Johnson, they were mailed a few at a time, randomly, and offered for sale via a classified ad in the Village Voice.,^[10] thus very few people ever received all the pages. Something Else Press published Johnson's The Paper Snake for a wider audience in 1965. Remarking about himself and the book, Johnson said:

I'm an artist and a, well, I shouldn't call myself a poet but other people have. What I do is classify the words as poetry. …The Paper Snake… is all my writings, rubbings, plays, things that I had given to the publisher, Dick Higgins, editor and publisher, which I mailed to him or brought to him in cardboard boxes or shoved under his door, or left in his sink, or whatever, over a period of years. He saved all these things, designed and published a book, and I simply as an artist did what I did without classification. So when the book appeared the book stated, ‘Ray Johnson is a poet,’ but I never said, 'this is a poem,' I simply wrote what I wrote and it later became classified. ^[11]

On June 3, 1968 - the same day that Andy Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas with a gun she’d stored under May Wilson’s bed – Johnson was mugged at knifepoint. Two days later, Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Severely shaken, Johnson moved to Glen Cove, Long Island, and the next year bought a house in nearby Locust Valley, where Richard Lippold and his family resided. He began to live in a state of increasing reclusion in what he called a “small white farmhouse with a Joseph Cornell attic.”

Locust Valley Years[link]

From 1966 into the mid-1970s, Johnson’s work was shown at the Willard Gallery (New York) and Feigen Gallery (Chicago and New York), as well as by Angela Flowers in London and Arturo Schwarz in Milan. In 1970, mail from 107 participants to curator Marcia Tucker was exhibited in a Ray Johnson - New York Correspondence School exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York - a significant moment of cultural validation for Johnson. Another notable exhibition followed - Correspondence: An Exhibition of the Letters of Ray Johnson at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, 1976, organized by Richard Craven: 81 lenders’ works, 35 years of Johnson’s outgoing mail. Around that time, Johnson began his silhouette project, creating approximately 200 profiles of personal friends, artists, and celebrities which became the basis for many of his later collages. His subjects included Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs, Edward Albee, Louise Nevelson, Larry Rivers, Lynda Benglis, Nam Jume Paik, David Hockney, David Bowie, Christo, Peter Hujar, Roy Lichtenstein, Paloma Picasso, James Rosenquist, Richard Feigen, among others - a who's who of the New York arts and letters scene.

During the 1980s Johnson purposefully receded from view, cultivating his role as outsider, maintaining personal connections via mail art and telephone largely in place of physical interaction. Only a handful of people were ever allowed into his house in Locust Valley. Eventually, Johnson ceased to exhibit or sell his work commercially altogether. His underground reputation bubbled beneath the surface into the 1980s and 90s despite his general absence from the flourishing New York art scene. Johnson feverishly continued to work on richer and more complex collages. In contrast to his physical seclusion, Johnson's pre-digital network of correspondents increased in size exponentially.

Death[link]

On January 13, 1995, Johnson was seen diving off a bridge in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and backstroking out to sea. His body washed up on the beach the following day. Many aspects of his death involved the number "13": the date; his age, 67 (6+7=13); the room number of a motel he’d checked into earlier that day, 247 (2+4+7=13), etc. Some continue to speculate about a ‘last performance’ aspect of Johnson’s drowning. Hundreds of collages were found carefully arranged in his home. He left no will and his estate is now administered by Richard L. Feigen & Co.

Film & Television[link]

Following his suicide, filmmakers Andrew Moore and John Walter (in conjunction with Frances Beatty of Richard L. Feigen & Co.) spent six years probing the mysteries of Johnson's life and art. Their collaboration yielded the award-winning documentary "How To Draw a Bunny", released in 2002. The film includes interviews with artists Chuck Close, James Rosenquist, Billy Name, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Judith Malina, and many others.

John Cale's song "Hey Ray" from his 2011 E.P. Extra Playful is about Cale's encounters with Johnson in New York during the 1960's.^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Artpool’s Ray Johnson site
• Johnson, Ray with Diane Spodarek and Randy Delbeke. "Ray Johnson Interview”, Detroit Artists Monthly, February, 1968
• Ray Johnson's Estate - represented by Richard L Feigen
• Ray Johnson Resources
• How to Draw a Bunny at the Internet Movie Database
• Ray Johnson and New York Correspondance School by William S. Wilson 1966
• Nick Maravell's website about Ray Johnson
• Artistamp Gallery - Ray Johnson
• Essay by Ina Blom
• http://www.mailart.be/ray_johnson.html