Monica McKelvey Johnson
Monica McKelvey Johnson, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an artist, curator, and activist living in Brooklyn, New York. Education McKelvey Johnson has received degrees from San Francisco State University (BA, 2001), and CUNY Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts Program (MFA). She also studied painting at the Pratt Institute in New York City. Artwork McKelvey Johnson was represented by The Jack Fischer Gallery in San Francisco and exhibited her artwork, including drawings, embroidery, gouache, in the show “STICK 'EM UP! STAY DOWN! GROW UP!” (June 14 - July 21, 2007). The exhibition was largely illustrative; Artweek described the works on display as “familiar and unnervingly odd”. She also creates and sells textile art. She authored the webcomic The Adventures of Dorrit Little, which explores the plight of a graduate student with heavy debt who questions the wisdom of her education decisions and the value of her multiple degrees. Much of the protagonist's perspective and questions are based on McKelvey Johnson's own experience with student debt. The comic is based loosely on Charles Dickens’ novel Little Dorrit, which also confronts issues around debt, and seeks to create greater transparency around student debt. For the publication Food Equality in our City (2014),