Until 1995 Johanna Weis worked in medical research (focus on oncology) in Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Lyon and Managua. She then studied restoration and conservation in Lyon and Paris and did her internships in Bern (Bernisches Historisches Museum), Cleveland, Ohio (Cleveland Museum of Art), Washington, D.C. (Textile Museum) and Lyon (private gilding and ceramics studios). Specializing in frame restoration and gilding.

In 2010 while living in Williamstown, studio in North Adams she began her artistic activity and exploration of the blotographs of Justinus Kerner, the natural science plates of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) and the pattern research of anthropologist Carl Schuster (1904-1969).