Rising Stars: Meet Cathy Ann Johnson-Conforto of DownTown Decatur

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Ann Johnson-Conforto.

Hi Cathy Ann, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
The Library, The Studio, The Museum A Three-Pillar Narrative
THE LIBRARY
Childhood Discovery
I often say the library was my first museum.
I grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where my mother ran an in-home daycare. A short bus ride down Cleveland Avenue would have taken me to Fort Hayes Career Center, the Columbus Museum of Art, and later the Columbus College of Art & Design. Distance wasn’t my obstacle. Awareness, culture, and circumstance were. I grew up in a world where the museum felt like it was for someone else.
The library was different. It was my second home. I lost myself in pictures of castles, princesses, and horses, studying the work of illustrators like Trina Schart Hyman. Those picture books were my first curated collection — my first gallery, my first museum, the first cultural space where I belonged.
The library taught me how to see.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
THE STUDIO Professional Journey & Building
I started early. At sixteen I worked on my first project for McGraw-Hill in Ohio. After graduating from Columbus College of Art & Design, I spent more than two decades at Hallmark, working in its Center of Excellence as an illustrator across products and brands. Long before social media, Hallmark understood that stories could strengthen relationships. In many ways, it was one of the first social storytelling companies.

Hallmark taught me how ideas move through organizations, how stories connect us, and how creative work shapes those connections. It was my dream job—reaching millions of families with messages of hope, celebration, comfort, and love. The opportunity to touch someone’s life with a single image and a few carefully chosen words still feels profound.

Near the end of my time there, I designed a series of angel ornaments. The final pieces were beautiful. Years earlier, completing that assignment would have felt like the pinnacle of my career. Instead, I finished the work and realized, quietly but unmistakably, that I was ready for something new.

When Hallmark went through a workforce reduction, I chose to see it not as an ending, but as an invitation—a return to the creative life that had always sustained me.

I settled in Atlanta, where I had family, and opened a small creative studio in downtown Decatur. It sat directly across the street from the Decatur Library. That wasn’t accidental. Libraries had been my earliest creative refuge—a place where I learned that imagination could become a way of life. Opening my studio across from that library felt like placing my work in conversation with the institution that first taught me to dream.

Building an independent creative practice was far more difficult than I imagined. Entrepreneurship, publishing, changing markets, and the responsibilities of caregiving demanded resilience. Looking back, I am grateful for those years. They gave me patience, discipline, and the confidence to keep creating even when the path ahead wasn’t clear.

During that season of my life, I was fortunate to spend time with Dr. Maya Angelou. Shortly after leaving Hallmark, I visited her at her home. She looked at me and said, “Miss Johnson, it is time for you to stand up, stand out until they notice.”

Those words became both a challenge and a blessing.

Through her, I came to understand that creativity is more than a profession. It is an act of service. The studio taught me not simply how to make art, but how to live as an artist—to trust my voice, to serve others through my work, and to understand that the stories we tell have the power to change lives.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Success has changed for me.

Early on, it looked like opportunities — landing projects, building a business, publishing books, reaching new audiences.

Now it looks like access.

As a child in Columbus, my question was: How do I access art?

Today, living between the United States and Rome, my question is: How do I create access for others?

Rome completed a circle that began in Columbus. The child who discovered art through library books now lives among centuries of architecture and cultural memory. My husband, Dr. Conforto, is Roman, and through him I’ve experienced the city not as a visitor but as a resident.

My mornings begin with a walk along the Tiber — light moving on the water, cobblestone streets I once saw only in storybooks at the library. Every day starts with room to dream, and to dream big.

That perspective reinforced what I’d always suspected: art belongs in daily life.

During COVID, I worked with Scholastic and author Brittany Cooper on Stand Up — developing the book while living in Rome, spending time near the Vatican. I was illustrating history while making history. The book became a feature exhibition at the Zimmerli Art Museum and later traveled to the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center.

That experience taught me something essential: a children’s book doesn’t have to stay on a shelf. It can become an exhibition. It can travel. It can create access.

That insight is what I’m building now through the Circle of Love Museum — multiple pathways for children’s books to become gateways to creativity, history, culture, and imagination. Not confined to a page or a shelf, but living, traveling, evolving — continuing the conversation long after the final page is turned.

The child in Columbus searching for access to art has become the adult in Rome creating access for others.

The museum taught me how to share.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Somewhere, right now, another child is sitting in a library, turning the pages of a picture book, discovering a world they didn’t know existed.

Perhaps that book will become their first curated gateway too.
Contact Info:

• Instagram: @cathyannstudio, @Luvitstudio