Aurelia “Mama” Johnson had said that she is unworthy of being called an artist. "I don't brag," she said, "because I know my Bible." In her small shotgun style home were sculpture-dramas, fashioned from discarded toys. Johnson transformed plastic detergent and shampoo bottles into dolls that she called her "missionary girls going out to do good." She often spoke to her dolls, mostly chastising them. "Ain't nobody going to want you," she told them. "You so ugly."
Johnson drew with felt-tip markers. Her forms are childishly outlined and filled with unending circles that spiral and overlap. The lines continue beyond the forms, across the paper to go nowhere and everywhere. With acrylics she attains half-inch, dry brush dot-like patterns that seem to blot up the papers’ white surfaces.
Best known for her "missionary girls," Mama Johnson also draws "aliestos," her endearing term for "aliens." She renders fish, snakes and flowers too. "I love flowers," she said. "I don't care how they look." She is surprised that people are interested in her images. "People say they're beautiful," she noted, then added, "but I think they're ugly."