Book Power!

Andie Thrams
Coloma, CA

In Forests, Volume XX: Wild Aliveness

I go into wild, often remote, forests on foot and by kayak drawn by a sense of reverence and despair, carrying what I need to work for hours, days or weeks. I sit beneath wild trees, near other creatures still thriving in spite of all that’s in their way. I use the artist’s book, a hybrid of medieval manuscript and field journal, to document these habitats in my ongoing series, In Forests. I format watercolor paper folios with proportions inspired by medieval books, but my painting, drawing and writing is otherwise unplanned and completed outdoors. I bind these folios into each unique In Forests volume; spatters, stains, debris and other forest marks remain. Perhaps the power of vanishing forests may move us.

Case-bound accordion-folding book of seven folios with imagery front and back and matching slip case. Watercolor, gouache, ink, colored pencil and pastel on rag paper. Paste-painted tyvek and rayon bookcloth covered boards and case. Pages made in forests along Kachemak Bay, Turnagain Arm, Eastern Prince William Sound and on Shuyak Island, Alaska. 15 pages. 8.75 x 9.5 x .75 inches, 114 inches fully extended. 2010. Unique. $2600

To purchase, please contact Laura at 23 Sandy Gallery.