Jerry Dennis’ The Windward Shore a walk on the wild side
By F. Josephine Arrowood
Sun contributor
As autumn recedes under the lowering, snow-filled skies of winter, curl up in a warm place with the newest book of essays by celebrated nature writer Jerry Dennis, with wood engravings by the incomparable Glenn Wolff. Or better yet, follow the writer outside, as he takes you on a guided exploration along The Windward Shore: A Winter on the Great Lakes. The book continues Dennis’ complex relationship with a region that he says is difficult to easily define or know, as it encompasses so many diverse elements, loved or used or thrown away by so many.
Yet, “It is land held together by water. That is one feature shared throughout,” whose shore becomes a place of acute observation, action, meditation and mediation both literal and symbolic, between the natural and the human, the beautiful and the damaged, the raw and the refined. And always, the coldness that accompanies our most extreme season, which holds a surprising abundance for Dennis — and, he hopes, the reader — who choose to know a place more deeply.
His most recent previous book, The Living Great Lakes, took him on a more linear journey, a kind of survey of the passing shores inhabited by diverse flora and fauna, structures, peoples, history and lore, while sailing on a two-masted schooner from Traverse City to the ocean at Bar Harbor, Maine. Here, the essays take a different tack: less easily arranged, but more densely woven into encounters with family, friends, neighbors and wild creatures; natural history lessons; statistics; memories and feelings; all filtered through Dennis’ accessible, engaging prose. He includes the fresh retelling of some familiar narratives, a seasoned storyteller bringing forth new insights and vivid imagery from powerfully felt experiences, as in “Beach Walking.” In “Winter Comes to the Keweenaw,” he describes his family’s search for agates along Lake Superior; he seems to urge the reader to become, like the colorfully stratified stones themselves, “bound to the place … and acquired layers of remembrance.” He ponders the surprising categories of things that come in waves, and celebrates the intimate relationship between books and nature. His final chapter, “Field Notes,” provides an unexpected bounty of distilled images and ideas that take on truly poetic force.
Like any long-term, committed relationship, to know is to love — despite (perhaps because of) faults, difficulties and the inevitable ups and downs of the process: “When we reach deeply into the world, the world reaches back,” he posits in his chapter, “Winter Walks.”
While Dennis acknowledges the impossibility of comprehensively knowing the Great Lakes, whose immensity seems to defeat even their most ardent champion, he also knows that we must keep trying. We must face into the wind with sisu — like the stalwart Finns who populated the Upper Peninsula at the turn of the last century — in order to save our unique, wild and beloved place, as well as ourselves.
Jerry Dennis and Glenn Wolff will sign books at Black Star Farm, south of Suttons Bay, on Saturday, Nov. 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m,, to benefit the Fishtown Preservation Society. Dennis’ books are available at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor, Leelanau Books, Dog Ears Books, Horizon, and other local venues. For more information, visit www.jerrydennis.net.
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Glenn Wolff interview
We spoke with nationally known artist Glenn Wolff, whose wood engravings grace the cover and pages of The Windward Shore. Wolff grew up in Traverse City, and attended Northwestern Michigan College (he was honored as distinguished alumnus in 2011), where he studied printmaking. After receiving a BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, he established a career as a freelance illustrator in New York City. Since 1987 he has been based at his Traverse City studio at www.glennwolff.com.
Glen Arbor Sun: How many book collaborations have you and Jerry done over the years?
Glenn Wolff: Six altogether. It’s Raining Frogs & Fishes and The Bird in the Waterfall were full-on collaborations: covers, end papers, and about 80 illustrations in each book. Then I did chapter illustrations for A Place on the Water, From a Wooden Canoe, and The River Home (I only did endpaper maps for The Living Great Lakes, so I’m not counting that). In 2007 we collaborated on the limited-edition letterpress book Winter Walks with Chad Pastotnik from Deep Wood Press — probably one of the most fun projects ever. Jerry, Chad, and I also collaborated on a broadside titled The Trout in Winter. Jerry and I currently have a seventh book proposal out there now: our collection from the “Natural Enquirer” columns that we did for Wildlife Conservation Magazine back in the ‘90s.
Sun: How did your first book, 1992’s It’s Raining Frogs & Fishes, come about?
Wolff: I was visiting a mutual friend to discuss an illustration workshop we were going to teach when Jerry called. She said, “You guys need to get together!” and handed me the phone. We had lunch, hit it off, and hatched the idea for Frogs and Fishes at that meeting.
Sun: What’s your creative process when you’re working on something? For instance, do you go on a hike and simply absorb what’s out there? Do you make preliminary sketches, then continue to work in the studio, or take photos, or some combination of these?
Wolff: All of the above. Sometimes I’m sketching in the field (my favorite), often finishing off an illustration in the studio, frequently buried in a reference book that describes the angle of the sun during a rainbow, the life cycle of a mayfly, or the benthic layer at the bottom of a lake. The thing I try to avoid the most is taking photos to work from. It always seems false to me, and if I have to do it, it is just for a technical note.
Sun: Remind me what technique these “wood” cuts are. Did you learn or hone this method from your work with Chad Pastotnik? How do you add color?
Wolff: We all did linoleum block prints in school. This is basically that same process of relief printing, only one carves into the end grain of wood for wood engravings. There is also a composite called “resingrave” that I use on most of my prints now. It’s harder than linoleum, a bit more consistent than end grain wood, and allows one to get a lot of nice detail. Chad has helped and mentored me a great deal with this process. The color, usually watercolor, is added by hand after the print has dried.
Sun: What is your favorite medium at the moment? What exciting projects are you working on now?
Wolff: I’m really enjoying the diversity of several styles at the moment. Straight pen and ink illustration, wood engraving, and mixed media painting on wood. I’ve just finished several new engravings for another limited edition book with Chad. This one is a short story by Judith Minty called “Killing the Bear” and should be out around Christmas. It’s very sparsely written, and I found it quite haunting. I’ve also finished doing 50 botanical label illustrations for a store in Florida that just opened. They are for a line of flavored olive oils and balsamic vinegars. That was a collaboration with Emily Mitchell and Tim Nielsen from Nielsen Design Group — good friends and my favorite graphic designers. Yesterday I got the go-ahead from Red House Records to do the cover artwork for Claudia Schmidt’s next CD, Bend in the River, and will be working on that over the next month.
Sun: Are you showing in galleries?
Wolff: YES! I’m currently represented by Gallery 50 in Traverse City. I am also in a group show at Gallery in the Woods in Brattleboro, Vermont, and have a solo show at Uncommon Ground in Chicago, which will be moving to the Images Cooperative Gallery on Dec. 5, with a reception on Dec. 10. I am also represented by the Elaine Fleck Gallery in Toronto, and Kuhlhaus Gallery in Harbor Springs. AND I’ve just had the honor of being invited to be the artist-in-residence at the Old Art Building in Leland next summer.
Sun: I see some of your prints at the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor. And I know you and Jerry Dennis will be at Black Star Farm on Nov. 19. Anything else?
Wolff: I will have prints and originals at the Zonta Festival Art Nook on Sunday, Nov. 20 at the Hagerty Center in Traverse City. And I have an online-only special of the wood engraving featured on the jacket of The Windward Shore. The hand-colored limited edition of 100 is matted with acid-free backing, in an acetate sleeve. Orders in November include a copy of the book signed by Jerry and me, with a pencil remarque by me also, at www.glennwolff.com
Sun: I wish you could have done an illustration of the sentence on p.77 of The Windward Shore that goes, in part: “Open the cover, and out would rush starlings…”
Wolff: I love that sentence, too. Some words need nothing, are cinematic, and basically are just too damned good to profane with illustrations!
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