Petra Guenthner Johnson was born in western North Dakota in 1979. She grew up amongst a landscape of old mining hills, green-golden grasses, and rolling wheat fields dying into the lignite smoke-stacks of the horizon. The people, fokways, colors and textures of her childhood continue to surface in her artwork in ways she often finds surprising.

She began college at UWS in Superior, WI in 1998. It was there that she discovered the endless possibilities of the fiber medium and fell in love with the artform. In 2001 she transferred to North Dakota State University, there she continued to pursue her studies. In 2003 she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts.

After a brief sebatical from both the midwest and art-making, she now lives and creates amongst the rustling cornfields of southwestern Wisconsin.