Suzanne Stryk

The Middle of Somewhere (eBook, ePUB)

An Artist Explores the Nature of Virginia

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

There's no such thing as the middle of nowhere. Everywhere is the middle of somewhere for some living being. That was Suzanne Stryk's mantra as she journeyed through her home state on a mission to re-create Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia. The founding father's work surveys the region's natural history and, as one might expect from a philosopher-statesman living more than 230 years ago, is fact packed and formally written.

The Middle of Somewhere takes a different approachto interpret Virginia land and life from a contemporary perspective and an artist's point of view. Stryk kayaks pristine swamps in river country, wanders the galleries of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, hikes rocky trails crisscrossing the Appalachians, and strolls the dusty streets of old coal towns. In these sacred spaces she encounters frogs, millipedes, ravens, dragonflies, sparrows, turtles, and many other species that claim a particular place as home.

Weaving in historical anecdotes and personal memories, Stryk relates her encounters with all of these beings in their somewheres. The creatures in their habitats and the people she meets are characters in the book, a tapestry of essays, lush sketches, and ephemera. Stryk's multimedia collages, composed of dead bugs, tourist pamphlets, road maps, pressed leaves, rusty farm equipment, animal bones, and handwritten directions, all artistically arranged over USGS topographic maps, bring the narrative to life.

Stryk's personal reflections and conversational tone make readers feel as if they are traveling across Virginia with a friend, one who is at times funny and at other times deeply reflective. As we accompany her, she challenges us to travel slowly, tread lightly, and look closely at each somewhere that defines a place.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Trinity University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 22. März 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781595349620
• Artikelnr.: 68685131

Autorenporträt

Suzanne Stryk is an artist who finds equal fascination in the natural world and the visual arts. Her conceptual nature paintings and assemblages have appeared in solo exhibitions throughout the United States, and her portfolios and related writings have been featured in Terrain.org, Orion, Ecotone, and the Kenyon Review. She is the recipient of a George Sugarman Foundation grant and a Virginia Commission for the Arts fellowship for the project "Notes on the State of Virginia," the precursor to The Middle of Somewhere. She lives in southwest Virginia.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents
 
Preface
1. The Green Fuse
2. Daily Observations
3. Gaining Ground
4. What the Mockingbird Told Me
5. The Dragon
6. Back to the Garden
7. The Dinosaur and the Bridge
8. Life Cycle
9. Field Notes
10. Coal Tattoo
11. Water Way
12. Natural History of an Art Museum
13. Refuge
14. Dialogue on the Tides
15. Flyway
16. Nest-Making
17. Lost and Found
18. On the Road
19. Looking Backward
20. Sacrament
21. Collecting the Wild
22. How the Past Returns
23. World Enough
24. Salamandering
25. Pilgrim
 
Acknowledgments
Image Notes