Eventually a Sequoia: Stories of Art, Adventure & the Wisdom of Giants

This exuberant travelogue from activist and artist Collins (Drawn) offers a front-row seat to conservation efforts in some of Earth’s most vulnerable and remote ecosystems. Combining typewritten texts, ink drawings, field notes, and photographs, he chronicles assisting recovery efforts in the aftermath of Nepal’s devastating 2015 earthquake; documenting encroachments on “uncontacted” peoples in remote Brazil; observing oil drilling on federal lands in the Arctic Circle; and scaling ancient sequoia trees to gather foliage samples for conservation research. Collins grounds each retelling in affectionate profiles of the researchers and activists he tags along with on expeditions that straddle the line between climate activism and ecotourism (his extensive rock-climbing experience comes in handy). He adopts the motto “observe, find a connection, and draw,” and the resulting art drawn on site lends a fantastical sense of wonder to the accounts. A certain X Games swagger seeps into descriptions of projects involving paragliders and crossbows, but an introspective humility anchors Collins’s yearning to plug his creative skill set into social justice and human rights efforts. A paean to seeing as practice, this delivers an impassioned portrait of the hard work of environmental activism and the fragile beauty at stake. (Sept.)