Obi Kaufmann in conversation with Oscar Villalon

Friday, September 7, 7:30pm
Pegasus Books Downtown

Obi Kaufmann presents his award-winning best seller, The California Field Atlas.

Following a visual presentation, Obi will be joined in conversation by ZYZZYVA Managing Editor Oscar Villalon, discussing the importance of reframing the language of conservation, and the impact of the California Field Atlas, one year on from publication.

On sale for the first time at Pegasus will be the California Field Atlas Note Card Sets (Heyday, 2018) featuring beautiful reproductions of the watercolor illustrations of mammals and birds of prey, created by Obi for the book.

Winner, 2018 California Book Award Gold Medal (Notable Contribution to Publishing)
Winner, 2018 NCIBA Book of the Year Award (Regional Interest)
#1 San Francisco Chronicle Best Seller

THE CALIFORNIA FIELD ATLAS (HEYDAY, 2017)

This lavishly illustrated atlas takes readers off the beaten path and outside normal conceptions of California, revealing its myriad ecologies, topographies, and histories in exquisite maps and trail paintings. Based on decades of exploring the backcountry of the Golden State, artist-adventurer Obi Kaufmann blends science and art to illuminate the multifaceted array of living, connected systems like no book has done before. Kaufmann depicts layer after layer of the natural world, delighting in the grand scale and details alike. The effect is staggeringly beautiful: presented alongside California divvied into its fifty-eight counties, for example, we consider California made up of dancing tectonic plates, of watersheds, of wildflower gardens. Maps are enhanced by spirited illustrations of wildlife, keys that explain natural phenomena, and a clear-sighted but reverential text. Full of character and color, a bit larger than life, The California Field Atlas is the ultimate road trip companion and love letter to a place.

Growing up in the East Bay, Obi Kaufmann spent most of his weekends mapping Mount Diablo’s creeks, oak forests, and sage mazes. Into adulthood he would regularly journey into the mountains, spending more summer nights without a roof than with one. Based on decades of exploring the backcountry of the Golden State, Kaufmann’s lavishly illustrated atlas takes readers off the beaten path and outside normal conceptions of California. His book blends science and art to illuminate the multifaceted array of living, connected systems like no book has done before, and outlines the epic narrative of the California backcountry, which holds enough art, science, mythology, and language for a hundred field atlases to come.