the river's secrets

By Julie Wagner
El Rito, New Mexico: Julie Wagner, 2011. One-of-a-Kind.

4.625 x 6" closed, extends to 48"; 8 folds. Accordion structure. Watercolor and ink Suminagashi paper. Painted boards with raised illustrated paper title label on front board and a raised illustrated signature and date label on back board.

Julie Wagner: "An accordion book based on a very lively, rapidly flowing river, and these books translate that liveliness into visual terms. I love the sound, the light reflecting off the water, the dance of the current making its way downstream. They are done with watercolor on paper that has been patterned with suminagashi."

Rio Grande Sun, interview, 2013: "These are like petroglyphs (she says, pointing to one section on one of the Rio Grande Books). I like this one a lot. It's called The River's Secrets, and it's just kind of the way you find petroglyphs. I've done a fair amount of books about drought. I think that's partly why I am interested in the river, too, because I feel like, especially the Rio Grande, but also the Chama, it's like the life blood of New Mexico and it goes right down - it's like the circulatory system of the state - and that interests me, that whole concept of flow, of your blood and your energy flow and flow in nature. To me it's all the same."
$375