Description
Book SynopsisThere’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 inspired by the reflective, encyclopedic sensibility of Thomas Jefferson’s book Notes on the State of Virginia. While acknowledging the moral contradictions in the founding father’s work and life, Stryk offers a contemporary interpretation of Virginia’s ecology from a visual artist’s point of view. The Middle of Somewhere is an assemblage of essays, sketches, and ephemera from her travels. In a challenge that is universal, Stryk invites us to travel slowly, tread lightly, and look closely at each somewhere that defines a place.
Trade Review"An elegant and often luscious tour of Virginia’s natural environment that is by turns travelogue; memoir; portable exhibition; reflections on culture and history; and observations of fish, fowl, fossils and artifacts." —Richmond Magazine
reflections on culture and history; and observations of fish, fowl, fossils and artifacts.
"I have long loved Suzanne Stryk's work. This book is an invitation to know that work more deeply, to learn of its origins, its roots, and to look over her shoulder as she sketches in notebooks full of salamanders and cocoons, horseshoe crabs and turtles. What a joy to lose yourself in a world of the human and nonhuman merged, of leaves and maps, trees and text." — David Gessner, author of Quiet Desperation, Savage Delight and All the Wild That Remains
“The title of Stryk’s new book is beautifully descriptive. She is always placing herself in the middle of an experience as she traverses the state of Virginia. In each chapter, she explores a specific subject deeply, gracefully connecting her personal meditations to natural history. As a visual artist, she examines salamanders, horseshoe crabs and other subjects through acute observation; as a writer, she pulls us into a world of endless wonder.” — Mary Stewart, artist and author of Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design.
“Suzanne Stryk overlays topo maps of Virginia places she visited with her sketches and notes, along with the stories of her experiences—all of them vividly and finely drawn. The result is a kind of deep map, a rich place in the imagination as much as a geographic point. Under a mossy rock in the highlands, she uncovers a salamander, an activity that speaks to her art: a colorful creature, the joy it brings, and the love it requires unrequited. The Middle of Somewhere brings us into the patience and ardor of Stryk’s artistic process and calls us to chart our own journeys of wonder and discovery.” — Rick Van Noy, Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in Climate-Changed South and A Natural Sense of Wonder
“Suzanne's art is transcendently beautiful. I love the juxtapositions of painting, found items, print, and who knows what else that she constructs. Her writing here seems to be mostly about her process, her way of seeing—a bit like her art, filled with surprising twists and turns.” — Julie Zickefoose, Baby Birds: An Artist Looks into the Nest and Letters from Eden: A Year at Home, in the Woods
“Stryk's art asks how we connect to place. Do we act as a tourist, passing through for a snapshot and then moving on? Or do we engage deeply like a traveler, moving beyond seeing to witnessing a natural world that may be disappearing. In this way, these works are not just "notes," but contemporary reliquaries housing fragments to be honored and protected.” — Leah Stoddard, Independent Curator
Table of ContentsContents
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
