Andie Thrams ~ California

Artist bio: “Sierra Nevada-based visual artist Andie Thrams uses watercolors in wildland forests to create paintings and artist’s books that explore mystery, reverence, and delight, while also grappling with the vanishing habitats of our era. Merging the lineages of illuminated manuscripts and natural history field journals with a contemporary art and science awareness, her imagery weaves intricate botanical detail into rich layers of shape, color, and hand-lettered text to evoke the complex interconnections within ecosystems of the Greater West.”

SFCB Shelter in Studio (March 2021): Andie Thrams: “Andie explains how she came to incorporate books into her art practice, discusses some of her recent works including her Forest Prayer Flags project, and gives a tour of her studio in Coloma, CA.” https://vimeo.com/523016444

HOPE?
By Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, and Andie Thrams
California: 2022. Edition of 32.

Twelve artists’ books, an informational companion book, About HOPE?, and a vial of wildfire ash in a 13 x 8.5 x 7" wooden reliquary made by Taylor Millar, a woodworker from Lagunitas, California. Reliquary f repurposed Douglas fir and locally sourced coast redwood. Title, hand stamped on brass attached to the base of the structure. Paper label affixed inside the structure stating provenance. Materials: Handmade and commercial paper, brass, wood, wildfire charcoal and ash.

Processes: woodcut, linoleum cut, pressure print, photogram, letterpress, digital printing, watercolor, gouache, and ink painting. Books signed by their respective artists and numbered.

Artists project statement: "HOPE? is a collaborative art project created by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, and Andie Thrams. Through field work in recently burned and green forests in Oregon and California, the artists investigated the complex topics of tree mortality, catastrophic wildfire, and climate change. They have created a wooden reliquary holding twelve artists' books, an informational companion book, About HOPE?, and a vial of wildfire ash to bear witness to the devastation of western forests, honor the importance of trees, and grapple with the question of hope at this pivotal moment in the Anthropocene epoch."

These four artists began their collaboration over dinner in 2019 during the CODEX Foundation Symposium and Book Fair in Richmond, California. At the 2019 Symposium the CODEX Foundation invited artists to create work addressing the global environmental crisis. These four decided to work together to create art regarding trees and forests. The pandemic delayed their project. During this time catastrophic fires near their homes shifted their focus “to investigate the impact of wildfire on western forests”.

Their research led them to the University of California Merced’s Yosemite Field Station in Wawona, California; to a California forest that had burned in the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire; and, Oregon’s McKenzie River Valley at H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. They met with researchers, forest rangers, Forest Service scientists and photographer David Bayles. They worked together, camped together, talked together. “HOPE?” is the result of their research, their art, and their care for what is happening to our forests and trees.

About Hope? conclusion: “As we completed and documented our collaboration, we knew there would always be more to learn and understand about forest ecosystems. The project has shown us how our diverse strengths and working styles as artists mirror the complexities found in a healthy forest. We hope the ideas and images we have shared within our reliquary will encourage others to ponder what we have pondered, and likewise find reason to take action and have HOPE.”

Be Joyful
Handmade paper by Peter Thomas; Linoleum cut by Donna Thomas

“Today, in the face of information overload and misinformation, educating ourselves becomes all the more important — we need to dig deeply into the issues to understand what is really going on, to find hope, and to take action.”

Breathe
Woodcut by Susan Lowdermilk

“I saw images of protestors carrying signs demanding climate justice from their leaders with messages similar to the quote I used by Boris Johnson. I thought about how leaders and the people must understand balance with nature to survive.”

Catastrophic Wildfire
Text by Peter Thomas
Photograms by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Andie Thrams Letterpress printed by Peter Thomas

“As our understanding of catastrophic wildfires and their connection to climate change expanded, our concerns increased. We see the catastrophic wildfires as only one signal that we need to mitigate climate change now.”

Fire Followers
Handmade paper by Peter Thomas
Relief printed by Donna Thomas

“After a forest fire certain plants will bloom and these plants are called ‘fire followers.’ Finding these plants growing through the ash and among the blackened trunks brought us hope and delight.”

Hope Calls for Action
Designed and assembled by Peter and Donna Thomas

“As the flexagon is manipulated, the texts fluctuate from hopeful to dire and reflect the shifts in our feelings as we grappled with the possibility of a catastrophic future and our ability to mitigate the negative effects of climate change.”

Invincible/Endangered
by Susan Lowdermilk, Peter Thomas, Andie Thrams
Pressure print images by Susan Lowdermilk

“Witnessing the obvious decline of the forest in the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoia in Yosemite caused us to wonder what else will be threatened with extinction, and how that will affect the chain of life.”

Old Growth Matters
Text by Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, Andie Thrams
Woodcuts by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Andie Thrams
Handmade paper by Peter Thomas

“The rich biodiversity of an ancient forest ecosystem takes centuries to evolve, provides habitat for innumerable species, sustains countless ecological processes essential to a healthy planet, and is therefore crucial to our survival.”

Mass Unraveling
Imagery, printing, and design by Andie Thrams

“How much is our world unraveling? Are we capable of taking action to reverse, or just slow down, the downward spiral we may be within?”

Only What We Love
Text by Susan Lowdermilk
Letterpress printed by Donna Thomas
Accordion tree shape by Donna Thomas; Handmade paper by Peter Thomas

“To love a tree so much that one gives it a name can lead to protecting what is loved.”

Resilience (right)
Watercolor and gouache painting by Andie Thrams
Woodcuts by Susan Lowdermilk
Linoleum cut by Donna Thomas
Letterpress printed by Peter Thomas

“Clearly the earth has enough resilience to continue on no matter what humankind does, but forests don’t have that kind of resilience.”

Vast Unseen Networks
Text by Susan Lowdermilk, Donna Thomas, Peter Thomas, Andie Thrams
Cover paper handmade by Peter Thomas
Woodcuts by Donna Thomas and Andie Thrams

“Through webs of underground fungi connecting tree roots to other plants, forest resources and information are shared. … We hope this book inspires interest in and admiration for the mysterious and diverse processes that help trees flourish.”

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
Text and images by Andie Thrams

“This book explores the overwhelming, destabilizing, and sometimes dark feelings that frequently arise with awareness of catastrophic wildfire, worldwide species extinction, habitat loss, and climate change.”

More details can be found in the in the “About Hope?” pamphlet.
$3,400 (Last 3 copies)

BACKCOUNTRY series
Andie Thrams, Summer 2022: “BACKCOUNTRY is a new series of unique artist’s books illuminating habitats I experienced while hiking in the backcountry of California’s Sierra Nevada during the pandemic summer of 2022. Each was drawn, written and painted onsite using twig, brush, pencil and pen, sometimes with handwritten text addressing grief over environmental degradation and habitat. To make my books I go into wildland forests for hours, days or weeks at a time. While there I work with ink, pencil, watercolor and gouache on folded paper – materials small and light enough to carry long distances inside a pack. Content is unplanned and is completed spontaneously in response to my outdoor observations. The traces of fieldwork remain: rain and paint spatters, stains, and other forest marks.”

And Yet
By Andie Thrams
[Coloma, California]: Andrea L. Thrams, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

5 x 4" closed; 8 panels. Double sided accordion. Text handwritten. Watercolor, ink, and 23.75 gold leaf on Fabriano watercolor paper. Bound in paper covered boards with paper title on front cover. Covers and endsheets of Cave Paper. Signed by the artist.

"And Yet" was painted and written in the Muir Grove of Giant Sequoias, Sequoia National Park, California.

Text excerpt: "Why is it fun to learn birdsongs, to name the wildflowers? I think it feels like a recognition of kinship. It enhances awareness of individual others, beings to get to know & love, to see again, to greet by name and yet, so many dead and dying trees."

The predominant color is brown an obvious reference to the dead and dying trees. And, while not mentioned, also a reminder of the vast wildfires that are the cause of much of the forest devastation on the West Coast.
$980

And Yet Again
By Andie Thrams
[Coloma, California]: Andrea L. Thrams, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

5 x 4" closed; 8 panels. Double sided accordion. Text handwritten. Watercolor. Bound in paper covered boards with paper title on front cover. Watercolor, ink, and 23.75 gold leaf on Fabriano watercolor paper. Covers and endsheets of Cave Paper. Signed by the artist.

"And Yet Again" was painted and written in the Muir Grove of Giant Sequoias, Sequoia National Park, California.

Text excerpt: "This easy gentle warm sunny mid-summer day in the Sierra Nevada is a balm to any heart & mind. Beauty all around, the air full of wildflower fragrance & feel a gladness deep within ... and yet. I remember the diversity in flower species when I first came here in 1975 - and definitely fewer dead trees. Even then, air quality was a concern here. The forest already was showing impact from Southern California & Central Valley pollution."

And yet again the predominant color Thrams uses is brown an obvious reference to the dead and dying trees and perhaps a foreshadowing of the future of the forest.
$980

Just Like Us
By Andie Thrams
[Coloma, California]: Andrea L. Thrams, 2022. One-of-a-Kind.

5 x 4" closed; 8 panels. Double sided accordion. Text handwritten. Watercolor, gouache, ink, and 23.75 gold leaf on Fabriano Artistico paper. Bound in paper covered boards with paper title on front cover. Covers and endsheets of Cave Paper. Signed by the artist.

"Just Like Us" was painted and written in the Kings Canyon National Park, California. The artist notes their hike through the forest mentioning that they see a mama bear with two cubs - one black, one blond. At night they settle in - "We had a fire each night and morning ... COLD! And, each evening, at dusk, robins softly chattered as they settled into the lodgepoles for the night, just like us."
$980

Field Studies series
Andie Thrams: “Field Studies is a series of unique (one-of-a-kind) artist’s books created on site in wildland habitats. Each illuminates a particular place, species, or experience, often with hand-lettered field notes and text addressing environmental grief (solastalgia). I work outdoors using materials easily carried into the field: ink, watercolor, and gouache on folded sheets of paper. I paint with twigs dipped into ink, use stream and sea water, and invite fungi, soil, leaves, seaweed, sap, and bark to stain the work. Back in the studio, I often add gold leaf to bestow a sense of the sacred.”

SOLD Titles by Andie Thrams:

Birdsong: Boreal Chickadee
By Andie Thrams
Coloma, California: Andrea L. Thrams, 2018. One-of-a-Kind.

11 x 4 inches, extends to 38 inches; 10 panels. Accordion-folding structure. Ten panels with imagery front and back. Ink, watercolor, and gouache on Fabriano Artistico watercolor paper. Endsheets, cover, and folding paper case of Cave paper. Boards covered in green paper with illustrated paper title on front board. Enclosed in folding paper case with magnetic closure and paper title label on spine. Signed and dated by the artist.

Andie Thrams: "This book’s pages were painted during in early autumn in the boreal forest of interior Alaska while visiting a remote cabin accessible only by foot. 'Birdsong' is a series inspired by birds I see and har while painting in wildland forests. The bird for this book is the Boreal Chickadee. May this work hold a sense of the sacred with which it was made."
(SOLD)

Volume I: Time in the Trees SOLD
Volume II: Meandering in Yosemite's Big Trees SOLD
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 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: Beneath Oak & Pine SOLD
Volume XXIII: How Altered is Vision? SOLD
Volume XXIV: A Vision Made Real SOLD
Volume XXV: Nightfall Moonrise SOLD
Volume XXVI: Knowing the Edges SOLD
Volume XXVII: Walking Near Them SOLD
Volume XXVIII: Fall Into, Dwell Amongst SOLD
Volume XXIX: Re-Enchanted SOLD
Volume XXX: Sinking Into It All SOLD
Volume XXXI: Left to Wonder SOLD
Volume XXXII: A Queenly Mossy Place SOLD
Volume XXXIII: Not Knowing SOLD
Volume XXXIV: In A Snowy Chair SOLD
Volume XXXVI In Wilder Corners SOLD

Arnica gracilis (We Know Why) SOLD
Aster Siberius (All the Time in the World) SOLD
Aster Sibirus (All the Time in the World) SOLD
Claytonia Perfoliata (Just Right Here) SOLD
Letharia vulpina (Every Little Growing Green) SOLD
Populus fremontia var. wislizenii (Cottonwood) SOLD
Populus tremuloides (Autumn Quiet) SOLD
River Dream (Field Studies no. 28) SOLD
Rosa woodsii (The Biggest Mystery) SOLD