Since junior high, it was Michele Johnson’s dream to design greeting cards. All-in on art covering various mediums, like watercolor, and drawing with pencils or markers, it was a hobby she wished to turn into a career. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Kansas State in graphic design, she made it happen.
“It was a fluke that I got the job,” she said. Straight out of college, Johnson went to work for TLC Greetings, a division of the McCall Pattern Company in Manhattan. She started with the company and ended up as their main artist and Creative Director. “It was great, I was there for about eight years.”
After the company was dissolved, Johnson went out on her own, designing signature greeting cards for four different companies. Along with her associated business, Prizm Inc., which sold collectible items.
“It was kind of like Precious Moments where people would collect,” she said. “We did that worldwide for 20 years.”
However, in 2008, Johnson said “the industry tanked.” Between online options and trends shifting away physical collections, she and her business partner sold the business.
“My whole background is very art-driven in a lot of ways but it goes up and down, the whole industry has changed,” she said. “Now we just have a different way of selling things.”
Johnson continues her art through a partnership called Pipka Art, a company that sells art-based projects like stickers, Christmas figurines, and more recently, cookbooks.
With her business partner, Johnson released “Eat Cookies for Breakfast,” a fun twist on childhood cooking and storytelling, she said. They will follow with volumes that celebrate eating cake and pie for breakfast next, she said.
“This was my first cookbook, I think it turned out really well, it’s designed like a scrapbook,” Johnson said. She sticks to the back end of the business, like running social media, the website, and helping with art, like watercolor or digital designs.
She also works full time as the general manager for the Westmoreland Hometown Market.
“Basically I do groceries from 9-5 then I do art and marketing the rest of the time,” she said. “I stay busy.”
Local Fare: An Ode to Wamego
More recently, Johnson has stuck to local illustrations through children’s books, starting with a fundraising project for the Wamego Public Library. The idea was to create a children’s book that featured fun things to do as a local (or as a visitor), complete with custom illustrations of the town’s best features. Johnson wrote the text, which was edited by the local librarian, and provided the artwork. Wamego Exploring the Place We Call Home was released in 2022.
It was followed by two more editions: a book discussing the former Wamego City Park alligator, who legend says called the park home in the early 1900s. What started as a park menagerie ended with just Mr. Gator, who was listed as keeping to himself in a pen south of the lake. The five-six-foot gator was gifted by a Louisianan, then donated to the local park board.
Mr. Gator & Friends, 2024, tells the tale alongside Johnson’s illustrations. Allegedly last seen in the park in 1925, the local newspaper said Mr. Gator got out of his cage. Moved underneath the Kaw Valley Bank (today’s Wamego Public Library) for winter months, Mr. Gator is said to have met the janitor after his escape, at which point a handler was called to lure him back into the cage.
She also did the artwork for a Wamego Honor Flight book, which is gifted to participating veterans and the high school students who attend alongside them. Honor Flight, Honoring Our Heroes: Wamego High School, was released in 2022.
Initially, Johnson illustrated an eight-book series of Kailey’s Ag Adventures through Kansas Farm Bureau. Working with friend and Farm Bureau liasion, Dan Yunk, Johnson hand-drew each page, before scanning them digitally. Yunk retired and formerly served as the Executive Director of Kansas Farm Bureau and Superintendent of USD 383 Manhattan-Ogden. It includes: Milk Comes from a Cow?, The Soil Neighborhood, Farmers and Ranchers Care About Their Animals, Celebrate Wheat, and Growing Up Strong, and more.
The series is available on ShopKansasFarms.com; cookbook at Pipkaart.com
