....

The most important thing in my life is my belief and faith in Jesus. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if not for him. I believe he is the son of God, that he died for my sins. He is my savior and the king of my life. Everything I do, I try to do for him. And if it isn’t obvious yet, I also happen to be gay. Some may argue the two can not go together. Well, I beg to differ. It took me a long time to come to terms with my sexuality in terms of my faith, but after lots of prayer and some serious Bible studying, I’ve come to accept the person God made me to be... gay and all. And I did so BECAUSE of the Bible, not in spite of it. I love my family and would love to talk more about them, but I’d be lying if I said they didn’t have issues with the beliefs I just wrote about above. I haven’t been rejected by them, and there is no animosity between us. They aren’t bad people, but we have different beliefs and unfortunately our relationship is strained by those differences. I pray someday God will show them what he showed me, because they’re missing out on getting to know a really neat guy… my husband.

A Little More About Me

    If you are visiting my site for professional reasons, you don’t need to look at this page. It’s about my personal life. Don’t feel like you can’t look, I’m just warning you what’s here.

    I created this page due to a number of questions I’ve received about my personal life. I have a Facebook page and I’d tell you to go there for that, but well, I barely look at it myself, let alone update it. So here are some of the basics of me….

    I’m in my late thirties, residing in Saint Paul Minnesota, with my husband John and our 2 dogs. We own a house, where my studio is, that we will likely be forever in the process of up-grading till we either die or sell the place.

The Basics:

Hair: Light brown

Eyes: Blue/Green

Height: 6 ft.

Weight: 230 lbs. (but struggling to be less)

I don’t do drugs, drink, or smoke, though I have found some pleasure in Pipe smoke.


Other Random Nuggets:

Favorite Book: The Harry Potter books (big surprise)

Favorite Movie: The Star Wars movies

Favorite TV Show: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (& Angel)

    I was born Keith James Johnson (I drop my last name just for art) the youngest in a family of two children. I was raised in Minnesota, which I left for a little while to attend college in Columbus Ohio at CCAD (see my resume for more about that) but after graduating I came back. I wouldn’t say I’m rooted in Minnesota, but it’s what I know and at this point in my life, the hubby and I have no where else to go. 

My free time is… well, it’s usually spent doing art, but if I can make a career doing art, spending my days drawing and painting, the rest of my time would be spent in a handful of ways. I still collect some comic books. John and I are kind of homebodies, we enjoy watching TV shows and movies together and we have a large collection of BluRay/DVDs and books.

    I married into a family of animals. When I first entered it there were three cats and two dogs. Since then, we’ve lost all of the cats. We still have the two dogs: Toto (left) & Dopey(right).


    John and I are both big fans of dogs, so even after these two have passed on to a better place, John and I have agreed we’ll likely always have a dog or two around.

    This is my husband, John Nickolaus. No, we’re not legally wed, but we had a ceremony where we committed our lives together before God, our friends and family and as far as I’m concerned, he’s my husband… even though everyone who meets us for the first time seems to think we’re brothers.


   John’s incredible and I love him more than he will ever know, or that I can express in word or deed. He’s gentle, kind and compassionate, yet masculine. I’m always amazed by his ability to be himself, even when faced with people who might scare others to conform. If you read the home page of the OZ gallery, you’ll find John is my inspiration for doing those illustrations. He is a huge fan of the Land of Oz series and even has an enormous Oz collection.


    And he’s very talented. While he doesn’t draw or paint like me, he has his share of artistic projects he does as well. He paints ceramics, cross-stitches, as well as a number of other crafty type stuff. He’s both performed in as well as directed a number of shows. He has a beautiful singing voice. If you look in the Theatre gallery you’ll find a bit about his and my community theatre group we formed called 5th Season Entertainment. For a couple of our shows he even designed and constructed the costumes!

My Hubby

Me

    As I said earlier, we aren’t “legally” wed but we consider ourselves married in the most important way. We had a wedding/commitment/whateveryouwanttocallit ceremony, at our church, where we made a commitment to God and each other in front of our family and friends whom would attend.


    We actually don’t believe there shouldn’t be such a thing as “legal” marriage. Don’t get me wrong, we want the same rights as everyone else. In our opinion, every couple (straight or gay) should just be a domestic partnership with the same legal privileges as the next. Let’s leave “marriages” up to the churches, and if a church does or doesn’t want to marry two men or two women together, so be it.

My Faith

Our Pets

Some Legal Crap

Theatre

Our House

    As of April of 2012, John and I are home owners. We bought a fun place in Saint Paul, with so much going for it, it was difficult to pass up.


    There’s not much more to say now. But as we make the place more and more, our own, I’ll post some pictures of what we do with it.

Free

Time

    But outside the house, we both participate in community theatre. No, for real. I know there aren’t many gay men who like theatre, but we actually do. I really hope the sarcasm I’m going for is coming off properly. If we can afford it, we enjoy going out to see a show every once in a while, though when it comes to theatre, my strongest passion is to be up on the stage.


    John and I even tried our hand at producing; we founded a community theatre group we named 5th Season Entertainment. We only produced a handful of shows before we had to take an indefinite break. Maybe we’ll get it going again someday. Before the break, we produce 4 shows. In the Theatre Galley you can see the posters I designed and painted for them.

Below are pictures from some of the shows John and I have been in.

   This is a picture taken of John and I back stage, mid-makeup while getting ready for a show

I got to play one of my dream roles, Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors

Me, as Nicely Nicely Johnson, in Guys & Dolls

John playing one of his dream roles, Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, in which I tagged along and played, Freddy Eynsford-Hill

John playing Warbucks and I as Rooster in Annie

I directed a production of Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, John was nice enough to play a small role in for me

John as the Scarecrow and I the Cowardly Lion in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

    So do you feel like you know me a little better now? In a way, my life is a bit of an open book. Don’t get me wrong, normally I don’t like to go on and on about myself like I did here. This page is the closest you get to me doing that – but again, it was based on requests. So if you ask, I try my best to answer honestly... though I really hope it’s all taken care of here!


~ See ya in the funny papers!

A Grand Night for Singing

The music of

Rodgers and Hammerstein