Writer goes NUDE

[Danee]

Buchanan resident takes reins at art magazine
By DEBRA HAIGHT - H-P Correspondent
Published: Sunday, March 28, 2010 1:09 PM EDT

BUCHANAN - Buchanan resident Carla Johnson is taking on a new
challenge after a career as an educator and writer. She is the new
managing editor of the NUDE art quarterly, an international magazine.

Thanks to modern technology, Johnson can work in Buchanan for an
international publication that's published in California.

"I work out of my study in Buchanan, and this is published in
Hollywood," she says.

"I talk on the phone all the time and e-mail back and forth. The
computer and telephone makes it all possible."

NUDE is the brainchild of Carrie Leigh, perhaps best known as Hugh
Hefner's "First Lady of the Playboy Mansion" in the 1980s. Leigh - now
a well-known photographer and publisher - began NUDE in late 2007.

"For me, this is just a dream come true," Johnson says. "There are so
few places where people can write about art anymore, and few
publications are hiring a managing editor."

"I can go out and find artists and suggest ideas. It's been such a
pleasure for me. They're trying to present stories that are
substantial. I'm doing it because of my love of art, love of writing
and love of art history.

"I have the time to go out and interview people. We're working and
planning months ahead, and that gives me time to look for stories,
edit, and go back and ask more questions. It's really a writer's
dream, especially a writer who loves art."

She's written about everyone from Peter LeGrand, a Columbia College
professor and photographer who had a recent show at the Buchanan Art
Center, to a fashion photographer in Moscow.

Johnson brings a wealth of experience to her new job. She was a
professor at St. Mary's College, where she taught English and
communications for 20 years, and was a freelance arts writer for more
than 20 years.

She is also the author of two books, "21st Century Feature Writing"
and "Principles of Advertising: A Global Perspective." The latter was
co-written by Monle Lee and has been re-published in India, China and
Indonesia.

Johnson, a 1962 Buchanan High School graduate, had been writing for a
French online magazine after her retirement from St. Mary's in 2008
when Leigh contacted her last year.

"They were reading my writing, and they wanted somebody who knew about
the history of art," she says. "They wanted me to come and interview
for the job.

"I was hired at the end of November. At first, I was just going to
write, and then they realized I could help them edit and find art.
They want it to be a true art quarterly, and that has to have literary
quality."

As the name implies, the magazine contains nude images, but Johnson
emphasizes that the nudity is understated and done in an artistic
rather than pornographic way.

The history of art is in many ways the history of nudes, she notes.

"I took two semesters of art history as an undergraduate," she says.
"The ancient Greeks had beautiful nude sculptures.

"I have a hard time with people's attitudes toward nude art. It's very
difficult to talk about it and have it accepted as mainstream. The
history of art is about the nude, and it's not pornography.

"With NUDE, each magazine is a work of arts. Carrie lays out each
issue, and each story flows into the next. She always shoots the cover
shots. The quality of the publication is what attracted me to it."

She thinks that the magazine's emphasis on quality is what makes the
difference and will help it succeed at a time when other publications
are folding.

"We want to get the word out about our publication," she says. "While
other magazines are going under, we're succeeding, in part because we
have no ads."


From: http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2010/03/28/features/1302783.txt

[rc]

that is a sweet article