ANDERSON JOHNSON

First published: Spring 2025

Anderson Johnson’s house of worship was hung with Bible quotes, and paintings of religious figures, angels and church ladies with compelling, transfixed eyes

Elder Anderson Johnson was a travelling guitar evangelist for decades, only settling in Newport News, Virginia, in the late 1950s when he was in his forties. From that point – until it was torn down by the city authorities in 1995 – Johnson lived at 1224 Ivy Avenue, his mother’s modest home which he transformed into a Faith Mission, decorating it inside and out with hundreds of wide-eyed portraits of angels, biblical figures, and church ladies. As word of the embellished house of worship spread, folk-art lovers began to visit and to buy paintings. Fortunately, collectors and members of the local community saved much of the artwork from the preacher’s mission before it was bulldozed.

Johnson on the steps of his Faith Mission on Ivy Avenue in 1995; photo: Ted Degener

Johnson was a child when he received his first vision from God, he said. Born in 1915, in Lunenberg, Virginia, where his parents were sharecroppers, he was raised in a devout household, the second youngest of six children. He had considerable musical and artistic talents, but his faith came first and this was only heightened when, at the age of eight, he reported experiencing the calling. He said that he was weeding when the sky suddenly darkened and two angels appeared, showing him an open book of his life. He couldn’t read, but they told him there were no marks against him in the book, and to “continue to live his life that way”, recounts his nephew Andrew Johnson.

painted ladies, angels, and a bird in flight; photo: Brett England

From that day, Johnson preached to anyone who would listen. Even as a child, he was a passionate orator who could fill churches near the homes of various extended family members in Philadelphia, Woodbury in New Jersey, and Newport News in Virginia where he moved with his mother when she and his father split up. Young Johnson taught himself to read the Bible, and to create several paintings at once, using both hands and even his toes. He used this “trick drawing” to illustrate his sermons, so that people would linger to watch and listen.