The Middle of Somewhere - by Suzanne Stryk (Paperback)

About the Book

An artist explores Virginia's natural and human history through essays, sketches, and multimedia assemblages

Book Synopsis

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 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.

Review Quotes

"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

About the Author

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.