To an Unforgiving Bastard - from "Travels of the Sage Narada" (a portfolio of 16 etchings and 14 poems by John Berry)

Ynez Johnston

This impression, from the collection of her friend and biographer Gerald Nordland, is number 1 of 25 and plate number 7 for a 1959 unbound "book" of 16 color intaglios to illustrate 14 poems by her husband, John Berry, titled "Travels of the Sage Narada."

Nordland noted about Johnston's graphic work:

"Johnston utilizes the multiple perspective devices of the etchings, flattens space, integrates foreground, mid-ground and background into a Byzantine-modern composition. The units of effect....has a forceful, expressive, and abstract quality not dissimilar to the stone tessare in Byzantine mosaics. The total effect is formal, unique and masterful."

According to Roshan PaTel: "Narada Muni (the Sanskrit word for Sage) is famous as the travelling musician and storyteller; preaching enlightening wisdom and news is a Vedic sage of the Hindu dharma (religion). In the ancient vedic scripts, the Sanskrit word Narada translates to ‘deity who was invested by Brahma with the power of creation’. The religious texts adhere him as one of the ten Manas- Putras; or the mind-sons or spirits (since he was born out of his mind rather than body) of Brahma. Also, he was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu."

After studying painting and printmaking as an undergraduate and graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, Ynez Johnston moved to Los Angeles in 1951 and, in 1957, she met poet and novelist John Berry and collaborated with him on the group of 16 color intaglios entitled Travels of the Sage Narada, featuring Berry’s poetry, the first of many collaborations..