Byline: Michael W. Pannel
The following article was originally published on November 20, 2025 in The Macon Melody, part of The Georgia Trust for Local News.
Kenneth Johnson’s work — creations both large and small, from fractions of an ounce to multiple tons — are made with meticulous care and craftsmanship, while also infused with meaning.
Johnson is an award-winning, internationally recognized Muscogee (Creek)/Seminole jewelry designer, metalsmith and sculptor. He was raised in the present home of the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma and now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
His massive sculpture, “ECKE — Mother Ground,” is featured in Bicentennial Park at 239 Clinton St., just west of Ocmulgee National Historical Park in East Macon.
The site is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) before their forced and illegal removal from Georgia, when lands, homes, businesses and heritage roots were taken as they were driven off on their own Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.
A ribbon-cutting took place on Nov. 13 to commemorate the opening of the park, created by Macon200 and related government agencies in celebration of Macon-Bibb’s 200th anniversary in 2023.
The park serves as a symbolic reflection of modern-day steps toward welcoming back and re-forging ties between Macon and the Native American community that once called the area home.
Macon-Bibb Mayor Lester Miller said the park “stands at the crossroads of our past and our future on land rich with Indigenous history, Black heritage and the industrious spirit that built this community.” He called it “a place for reflection and reconciliation where we can honor the stories that shaped us and look toward the future with hope and unity.”
The efforts of local, state and national leaders alongside Muscogee leaders to make Ocmulgee National Historical Park Georgia’s first full-fledged national park, co-managed by the Muscogee Nation, have become a unifying cause.
Johnson spoke of his sculpture — significantly placed to face west toward Oklahoma— to those gathered at the ribbon-cutting.
I had the chance to talk further with Johnson about his thoughts on the sculpture, his work and his traditional Georgia homeland:
“The piece in Bicentennial Park is 7.5 tons, 12 feet tall and made from Georgia white marble,” he said. “It’s one of my largest works to date and it’s important because of where it sits and what it represents. The life-size figure of a traditional stickball player will be placed in front of the sculpture. I like to do things that have some importance. With its scale, it denotes a gravity of place and the many people who lived here before Macon was a town — people who were already here with community, families and everyday life with government, structure and culture.
“The woman’s face alludes to our mother ground here, and the flames on its base represent the fires that went out from here and people who still exist today, alive and vibrant with a sense of fire burning within us. The white color of the Georgia marble is meant to be a healing color — that’s important. It facing west is important because the Bicentennial Park is about reconciliation. It’s about looking forward. Our goal is to have another sculpture, a sister piece in Oklahoma, facing east to mirror the one in Macon. It hasn’t been funded, but we’ve got to feed the vision for it.”
The idea of heritage and ongoing life — “we are still here” — is an important theme in Johnson’s work. An example, in addition to “ECKE – Mother Ground,” is something he calls the Muscogee knot, or life knot, which shows up in numerous jewelry pieces created by him.
Johnson wore such a ring at the event, and a similar necklace was worn by Tracie Revis of the Ocmulgee National Park & Preserve Initiative, the organization working toward seeing the Ocmulgee park become a national park as well as preserving lands around the Ocmulgee River.
“The knot represents two interacting segments,” he said. “I’m assigning to it the meaning of life based on my own understanding because I think these symbols have importance. You can see them visually, but some of the stories and history connected to them have been lost to us, so I’m looking at these symbols with my intuition and with my heart as an artist.
“When I look at that life knot, the Muscogee knot, it means that you’re connected in time and in space to a place or to a person. When you’re in that moment, you’re alive, you’re connected. I distinguish that I don’t speak for the tribe and I can’t define what it means to everyone, but I know what it means to me. That’s part of being an artist — you create out of your own vision and skill and then put it out there for others to see, hopefully be moved and informed by it, and to bring to it what they see.”
While Johnson may become best known in Macon for the Bicentennial Park sculpture, jewelry design and metalsmithing represent the bulk of his career.
Johnson designed and created the silver crescent, necklace-like gorgets worn by Muscogee Principal Chief David Hill, Second Chief Del Beaver and others. His work has graced multiple entertainment red carpets, including an iconic silver woodpecker gorget worn by “Reservation Dogs” creator and director Sterlin Harjo.
He has created custom, commissioned jewelry for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, as well as for a Canadian chief justice and a member of the British House of Lords.
Johnson’s jewelry has appeared in countless magazines, including French Vogue.
Whatever the medium, his work carries forward ancient, traditional designs based on pottery and patchwork familiar to him since his youth.
He said that in the work of his ancestors, he sees a flow — the same flow Johnson sees in his own work. It’s part of the story of his people, whether in tragedy and sorrow or resilience and triumph.
“It ties into things like the river and even the mounds,” he said. “The river goes beyond where we see it. Those mounds live beyond us, but we get to benefit from them and contribute in our own way.”
I asked Johnson if he felt the ongoing story of his people and heritage was being well told, past and present.
“No, it hasn’t been told well,” he said. “In fact, for so long it’s been covered up. Most people in Macon don’t know who built those mounds or lived here. They talk about it archaeologically, anthropologically, but don’t understand that the people who built them have descendants walking around, driving around, flying here and there, working jobs, creating culture and are alive and thriving. So, it’s not just the Indian mounds over there, it’s about people.
“I think there can be a better job in acknowledging the Muscogee people, telling our story, and it needs Indigenous voices telling it. We want more and more partners in the community who want that kind of inclusion, who want a full story and perspective.”
As a child in Oklahoma, Johnson recalled being curious about his cultural ancestry but struggling to find answers. Roughly 50 years later, he noted there is a greater sense of understanding.
“There’s been a shift and we’re seeing that there is a welcome and a return. Now, instead of saying you can’t go back, it’s that we should go back and engage in a good way,” he said. “I think the importance of having ambassadors for the nation, such as Tracie Revis, is paramount to that engagement. Seeing a cultural center opened here is such a great idea. I know what it is to grow up in Oklahoma and now have the privilege to visit here and engage, not as a tourist, but as someone who is invested here.”
Johnson and his art can be explored further at kennethjohnson.com and through his social media.
Contact writer Michael W. Pannell at mwpannell@gmail.com. Find him on Instagram at michael_w_pannell.
