Johnnie Sue Bridges
Encyclopedia
Johnnie Sue Bridges, author and photographer, was born September 13, 1958 in the historic crater town of Middlesboro, Kentucky, United States of America. She is the author of Shadows and Scars and Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair.
Bridges' unique works of non-fiction are distinctive explorations of personal experience, extended into general social commentary. Her writings frequently bring into play historical events along with music, and her works of photography, in referencing and time framing authentic accounts in the era of point in time.
She came into prominence with the release of the first book in her powerful series of memoirs entitled "Shadows And Scars" in June 2007. This book chronicles her early years during the 1960s of living in the mountains of Appalachia
with vivid imagery, comical moments and raw emotion. In one cold blue night, she writes of an already painful world turning into nothing short of a nightmare. Bitter coldness and survival starts the reader on a journey that portrays her mother’s fight against poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism, concluding in the riot-torn and racially divided city of Detroit in the late 1960s. As Johnnie Sue struggled to maintain stability in her hauntingly unstable world she tells of her deep-rooted faith in God that brought her through it all. It is quoted that the readers of Shadows And Scars gain the knowledge of endurance within themselves, despite adversity.
October 2008, book # 2 of her series "Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair" was released. This book chronicles her roller coaster ride through the early 1970s growing up in the inner city of Detroit’s Westside. She writes of hitting the teen years during the underground time of extreme change and uprisings while experimenting with everything under the sun. This came at a very high price—robbery of her self worth and most importantly, the stolen innocence of the ones she dearly loved. Highly educated in cultured urban habit, she was forevermore restless and ran incessantly. It was by the grace of God that she eventually changed and escaped. However, some of those she held closest to her heart paid the piper with their lives. Bridges has explained: “No one told us that stuff would kill ya.”
The art for the cover of her books is sought after almost as much as the books themselves. Each piece of the art has its very own unique story that has a symbolic or subliminal meaning depicting a portion of her life's journey. Bridges describes the art as—divinely inspired. In her words, “God gives me the picture in my mind, and uses my daughter, Monique, to bring it to life. Monique brilliantly creates the image in detail as I describe each segment. She has been given the gift to paint light. However, for the Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair there was a very talented artist that was brought aboard to help with the preliminary art by the name of Kevin Dewade Saylor. In the end, we kept his design of the shape of the hair pretty much to his original sketch; otherwise the rest of the art was redrawn by Monique and ultimately given its vibrant color. At one point, Monique and I had exhausted our selves trying to recreate the hands for my thirteen year old body of the Motown girl, when finally an idea struck and my photographers mind came in to play. I then took a photo of Monique’s hands and she transposed the image of her hands onto my body. The stories from the art could be a book all by themselves. In addition, my granddaughter, Allysa, (Monique’s daughter) designed and drew the city of Detroit inside the “O” within the title Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair.”
The art stories in their entirety are on Bridges official author’s Web site at www.johnniesuebridges.com.
October 2010, Johnnie Sue Bridges released book # 3 of her series entitled “Run BabyGirl Run.”
The year was 1973. A fourteen-year-old girl hitchhiked across the country to the Pacific Coast, then back to the Atlantic Ocean. Her mother died when she was only eleven years old and never knowing a father, there had to be a way of validating her very existence and to discover why she was on this planet. The answers were all around her; however, she would not be able to recognize them until years later. Meeting with many life-threatening situations, it’s a thousand wonders she is still alive to tell her story. "Run BabyGirl Run" is written with gutwrenching honesty and allows the reader to see into the very depths of this beautiful young girl’s soul.
Editor: Jackie Hurst
For “Run BabyGirl Run” a brilliant new graphic design artist, Jeffery R. Lewandowski, was brought on board to illustrate the author’s design. His work displays the divinely inspired images with much power and grace.
Johnnie Sue Bridges is currently working on the 4th book of the series,
“From the BOTTOM to the Grave”
. Of which she is the official photographer and videographer. Her photos of Rare Earth and many other musicians, places, and people have been displayed around the world in newspapers, on billboards, in books, magazines, and CD covers and so on.
Johnnie Sue’s photos were used for the cover and the inside disk of Rare Earth’s self titled CD “Rare Earth”. In 2008, Rare Earth released their first official CD within the Continental United States in over thirty years entitled “A Brand New World”[4]. The inside of the jacket cover was designed by Johnnie Sue Bridges with a spectacular collage display of her photos. In 2010 she designed the DVD and the jacket cover for Rare Earth entitled “Rare Earth Live.” Her photos are used by many recording artists in the US and the UK.
Publish Date: June 20, 2007
Hardcover ISBN 9780595678983
Softcover ISBN 9780595413652
Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair
Publish Date: October 29, 2008
Hardcover ISBN 9781436365215
Softcover ISBN 9781436365208
Run BabyGirl Run
Publish Date: October 23, 2010
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4535-9747-7
Softcover ISBN 978-1-4535-9746-0
http://www.myspace.com/susie1958
http://www.johnniesuebridges.org
Biography
Author and photographer, Johnnie Sue Bridges, was born September 13, 1958 in the historic crater town of Middlesboro, Kentucky, United States of America, to Ules Woodby and Shelby Jean Grider-Woodby.Bridges' unique works of non-fiction are distinctive explorations of personal experience, extended into general social commentary. Her writings frequently bring into play historical events along with music, and her works of photography, in referencing and time framing authentic accounts in the era of point in time.
She came into prominence with the release of the first book in her powerful series of memoirs entitled "Shadows And Scars" in June 2007. This book chronicles her early years during the 1960s of living in the mountains of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...
with vivid imagery, comical moments and raw emotion. In one cold blue night, she writes of an already painful world turning into nothing short of a nightmare. Bitter coldness and survival starts the reader on a journey that portrays her mother’s fight against poverty, loneliness, and alcoholism, concluding in the riot-torn and racially divided city of Detroit in the late 1960s. As Johnnie Sue struggled to maintain stability in her hauntingly unstable world she tells of her deep-rooted faith in God that brought her through it all. It is quoted that the readers of Shadows And Scars gain the knowledge of endurance within themselves, despite adversity.
October 2008, book # 2 of her series "Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair" was released. This book chronicles her roller coaster ride through the early 1970s growing up in the inner city of Detroit’s Westside. She writes of hitting the teen years during the underground time of extreme change and uprisings while experimenting with everything under the sun. This came at a very high price—robbery of her self worth and most importantly, the stolen innocence of the ones she dearly loved. Highly educated in cultured urban habit, she was forevermore restless and ran incessantly. It was by the grace of God that she eventually changed and escaped. However, some of those she held closest to her heart paid the piper with their lives. Bridges has explained: “No one told us that stuff would kill ya.”
The art for the cover of her books is sought after almost as much as the books themselves. Each piece of the art has its very own unique story that has a symbolic or subliminal meaning depicting a portion of her life's journey. Bridges describes the art as—divinely inspired. In her words, “God gives me the picture in my mind, and uses my daughter, Monique, to bring it to life. Monique brilliantly creates the image in detail as I describe each segment. She has been given the gift to paint light. However, for the Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair there was a very talented artist that was brought aboard to help with the preliminary art by the name of Kevin Dewade Saylor. In the end, we kept his design of the shape of the hair pretty much to his original sketch; otherwise the rest of the art was redrawn by Monique and ultimately given its vibrant color. At one point, Monique and I had exhausted our selves trying to recreate the hands for my thirteen year old body of the Motown girl, when finally an idea struck and my photographers mind came in to play. I then took a photo of Monique’s hands and she transposed the image of her hands onto my body. The stories from the art could be a book all by themselves. In addition, my granddaughter, Allysa, (Monique’s daughter) designed and drew the city of Detroit inside the “O” within the title Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair.”
The art stories in their entirety are on Bridges official author’s Web site at www.johnniesuebridges.com.
October 2010, Johnnie Sue Bridges released book # 3 of her series entitled “Run BabyGirl Run.”
The year was 1973. A fourteen-year-old girl hitchhiked across the country to the Pacific Coast, then back to the Atlantic Ocean. Her mother died when she was only eleven years old and never knowing a father, there had to be a way of validating her very existence and to discover why she was on this planet. The answers were all around her; however, she would not be able to recognize them until years later. Meeting with many life-threatening situations, it’s a thousand wonders she is still alive to tell her story. "Run BabyGirl Run" is written with gutwrenching honesty and allows the reader to see into the very depths of this beautiful young girl’s soul.
Editor: Jackie Hurst
For “Run BabyGirl Run” a brilliant new graphic design artist, Jeffery R. Lewandowski, was brought on board to illustrate the author’s design. His work displays the divinely inspired images with much power and grace.
Johnnie Sue Bridges is currently working on the 4th book of the series,
“From the BOTTOM to the Grave”
Personal life
Johnnie Sue Bridges currently resides in West Bloomfield, Michigan. She is married to Gil Bridges, world-renowned Motown recording artist of the classic rock band, Rare EarthRare Earth (band)
Rare Earth is an American rock band affiliated with Motown's Rare Earth record label , who prospered in 1970-1972. Although not the first white band signed to Motown, Rare Earth was the first big hit-making act signed by Motown that consisted only of white members...
. Of which she is the official photographer and videographer. Her photos of Rare Earth and many other musicians, places, and people have been displayed around the world in newspapers, on billboards, in books, magazines, and CD covers and so on.
Johnnie Sue’s photos were used for the cover and the inside disk of Rare Earth’s self titled CD “Rare Earth”. In 2008, Rare Earth released their first official CD within the Continental United States in over thirty years entitled “A Brand New World”[4]. The inside of the jacket cover was designed by Johnnie Sue Bridges with a spectacular collage display of her photos. In 2010 she designed the DVD and the jacket cover for Rare Earth entitled “Rare Earth Live.” Her photos are used by many recording artists in the US and the UK.
Books
Shadows And ScarsPublish Date: June 20, 2007
Hardcover ISBN 9780595678983
Softcover ISBN 9780595413652
Motown Girl Sister Golden Hair
Publish Date: October 29, 2008
Hardcover ISBN 9781436365215
Softcover ISBN 9781436365208
Run BabyGirl Run
Publish Date: October 23, 2010
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4535-9747-7
Softcover ISBN 978-1-4535-9746-0
Upcoming Books
Bridges is currently working on book number four of her series entitled “From the BOTTOM to the Grave.” This book has not been released for publication as of yet.Author's Official Web Sites
http://www.johnniesuebridges.comhttp://www.myspace.com/susie1958
http://www.johnniesuebridges.org