How Small We Are

How Small We Are is an abstract relief print in which the scale relations within the composition likely carry the thematic weight. Johnson may have organized the pictorial field so that one or more small forms are set against a vast, relatively open ground — using proportion and placement to induce a spatial reading that registers human scale against something larger, whether landscape, cosmos, or social structure. Relief printing allows for strongly differentiated areas of mark and void, and the clarity of the technique supports the kind of compositional statement the title implies. Johnson worked across seven decades and returned repeatedly to questions of the individual's position within natural or social systems. This print, like others in her oeuvre, translates that inquiry into abstract visual terms without recourse to figuration. The work may be printed on handmade paper that reinforces its materialist address to scale and presence.