Experience

• 

  Bessie's Pine Needle Designs

  • Master Basket Weaver and Artist

    • 1970 - Present

    Bessie D. Johnson is a Mississippi native who became fascinated with the art of basket weaving while watching her father weave chair seats and baskets using natural materials. She felt a special kinship with the earth and its inhabitants.Over the past 40-plus years, Bessie has learned to blend a rich cultural heritage and contemporary artistic vision to create her own unique art form using pine needles, gourds, corn shucks and other natural materials.Bessie uses long leaf pine needles which grow along the southern border of the Gulf states. A special decorating technique used in her pine needle baskets is a wheel or ring made from the cross-section of sliced black walnuts. Her most beautiful pieces of pine needle work contain one or more wheels of various sizes.Bessie’s
 baskets
 have 
been 
praised 
for 
their
 remarkable 
symmetry, 
beauty 
and innovative 
style.
 Her 
achievement
 as 
a 
crafts
person 
and 
designer 
of
 basketry
 has 
brought 
her 
increasing
 distinction 
and
 prominence
 in
 this 
field.Bessie
 Johnson
 has 
been
 very 
active 
teaching 
and 
presenting
 her
 work 
to 
the 
community. She
 has 
been
 awarded
 grants 
to 
teach 
both 
children 
and 
the 
elderly. 

Bessie
 has 
also 
worked 
as 
a 
master artist 
with 
the 
Mississippi 
Arts 
Commission
 Apprentice 
Program 
teaching 
her 
basket
weaving.The
 charter 
member
 of 
the 
Craftsmen’s 
Guild 
of
 Mississippi, 
Bessie 
has 
earned widespread
 recognition 
and 
numerous 
awards 
at 
major 
art
 shows 
and 
festivals. 

Bessie 
has 
exhibited 
and
 demonstrated 
at 
the 
1984
 World’s 
Fair 
in 
Louisiana. 

She 
was 
chosen
 to
 design 
and 
create 
ornaments 
for 
the 
Mississippi Christmas 
tree 
in 
the 
circle 
of 
state 
trees 
displayed 
at 
the 
White
 House
 throughout
 the 1994 
holiday season.Bessie 
has 
won 
many 
awards 
including 
the Governor’s 
Award 
for 
Arts 
Excellence 
in 
2010.