Andie Thrams ~ California

Andie Thrams: "For many years I have worked in wild, often remote, western forests creating a collection of illuminated field journal pages that chronicle forest experiences with drawing, painting, and writing. The project coalesced during time spent as Artist in Residence in Glacier National Park, Montana, in 2001. Many more of the pages were made during the winter and spring months of 2004, when I lived and worked as Artist in Residence at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the Oregon coast. I began binding my field journal pages into a series of one-o-f-a-kind artists' books called In Forests while back at Sitka Center in 2007. Other pages continue to be created during the ongoing days and weeks I spend in forests from Alaska to California. ...

"Each folio (one sheet with a fold down the middle to create two pages) is grid-formatted in pencil before I go into the forest, but is otherwise unplanned and receives little or no alteration later. I use watercolor, ink, gouache, and pencil working directly on 100% cotton hot press watercolor paper in spontaneous response to the forest. I go out on foot carrying a pack full of whatever is needed to work outdoors for hours, days, or weeks at a time. The marks of fieldwork remain: rain spots, smudges, stains, odd wordings, misspellings, and other surprises. I sometimes work while standing, usually sitting on the ground, almost always in forests."

In Forests Series

Andie Thrams: "Each unique volume measures 9.5 (high) x 8.75 (wide) x 0.75 (deep) inches, and measures 114 inches when fully extended. They are accordion bound in a unique case structure that can be handheld and read like a book as well as opening up accordion-fashion so as to see all pages at once. Each book is made of seven original folios ... connected with paste-painted tyvek strips, and case bound into boards covered with paste-painted tyvek and book cloth. All writing and imagery is rendered by hand."

In Forests Volume XVIII: Natural History
By Andie Thrams
Coloma, California: Andrea L. Thrams, 2010. One-of-a-Kind.

8.75 x 9.75" closed, 111" extended; 14 pages. Accordion structure. Watercolor, ink, gouache, and pencil on Arches hot press watercolor paper. Bound in brown book cloth with paper title on front board. In matching slipcase with paper title on spine.

Andie Thrams: "This volume holds pages created in forests near my home in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California in response to losing someone I once dearly loved. I learned of his sudden death during the season of forest catkins, the flowers produced by some trees and shrubs, forming a profound link for me. Catkins and flower buds are the primary imagery in this volume.The writing weaves the threads of catkin natural history, emotional risk and the sadness of loss. In addition to the materials I usually use, I also used shell gold, catkin pollen and pochoir in this book."

Colophon: "I go into wild forests for hours, days or weeks at a time. While there I work with ink, pencil, watercolor, gouache and pastel on folios of hot press watercolor paper. ... I format each page with proportions inspired by medieval manuscripts, but most content is completed outdoors in response to the forest. In the studio I paint and hand letter the first and last folios. ... I bind these ... The traces of fieldwork remain: rain and paint spatters, stains and debris, imperfect language and other forest marks."
$2,400 (SOLD)

Volume I: Time in the Trees Unavailable
Volume II: Meandering in Yosemite’s Big Trees $400
Volume III: To Begin SOLD
Volume IV: The Calligraphy of Twigs & Trees SOLD
Volume V: Like the Heartbeat of a Tree SOLD
Volume VI: All So Green SOLD
Volume VII: The Gloaming SOLD
Volume VIII: Time to Go SOLD
Volume IX: On and On SOLD
Volume X: This Forest These Trees SOLD
Volume XI: Everywhere and All Around SOLD
Volume XII: Shuyak Island Enchantment SOLD
Volume XIII: The Dazzle and Delight SOLD
Volume XIV: Great Northern SOLD
Volume XV: Happy to Walk In SOLD
Volume XVI: Great and Graceful SOLD
Volume XVII: The Ground Falls Away On exhibition SOLD
Volume XVIII: Natural History (Catkins) SOLD
Volume XIX: No Real Answer SOLD
Volume XX: Wild Aliveness SOLD
Volume XXI: Found, Again SOLD
Volume XXII: We Live Here SOLD
Volume XXIII: How Altered is Vision? SOLD
Volume XXIV: A Vision Made Real $2600
Volume XXV: Nightfall Moonrise $1650
Volume XXVI: Knowing the Edges SOLD
Volume XXVII: Walking Near Them $2600
Volume XXVIII: Fall Into, Dwell Amongst $2600
Volume XXIX: Re-Enchanted $2600
Volume XXX: Sinking Into It All $2600
Volume XXXI: Realms Beyond $2600
Volume XXXII: Not Knowing $2600