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. By that time she had already lived in Mexico and Italy, two sojourns that marked the beginning of a lifelong commitment to travel that would continuously invigorate her work. In 1957 she met poet and novelist John Berry and collaborated with him on a group of 16 etchings entitled Travels of the Sage Narada, featuring Berry’s poetry. The complex imagery and intricate layering of color, text and line reflect Johnston’s unique vision as well as her staggering technical ability. When the Pasadena Art Museum received this portfolio as a gift in 1962, PAM Director Thomas Leavitt called it “one of the most important series of etchings by an American artist in recent years.”