Warren D. Allmon

Barbara Page

Two tiny trilobites in a vast Cambrian ocean drift past sea cucumber parasols and a shaggy, tree-like sponge. Snail tracks loop enigmatically against brushed-gray Silurian slate, and ghostly white crinoids feather a Devonian seascape. A delicate pterosaur flies bravely into the Jurassic gloom, while a Tyrannosaurus rex so big that its teeth fill our field of vision stalks the deep orange sands that mark the end of the Cretaceous period. These are just a few scenes from the magnificent drama that unfolds in glorious full color and three-dimensional texture in Rock of Ages, Sands of Time. Each of Barbara Page's 544 contiguous painted panels represents a million years of the history of life on earth, with fossil plants and animals depicted at the same scale and in association with each other just as they might be found by a paleontologist in the field. A muted rainbow of background colors evoke the rocks in which the fossils were found—the Texas Red Beds, for instance, or the yellow Solnhofen limestone—and keystone events are shown metaphorically, with fat rolls of paint marking major extinctions or continental drift. To fully experience the awesome impact of an eon's worth of time spread across 500 feet of bas-relief panels, you'd have to visit the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York, where Page's specially commissioned work will be installed when the museum opens in 2002. But this book is the next best thing. Not only does it contain crisp color reproductions of each painting, but it also includes an accessible essay from paleontologist Warren Allmon giving the scientific context behind the art. For fossil lovers of all ages, and anyone interested in the merging of art and science, Rock of Ages, Sands of Time will be the find of a lifetime.

Paintings by Barbara Page, Text by Warren Allmon

Rock of Ages, Sands of Time

BOOK MARKS is an imaginative journey through artist Barbara Page's reading history, interwoven with memories prompted by the hundreds of titles depicted. At the heart of the book are over 430 artworks on repurposed library checkout cards, part of an ongoing art project housed in an antique two-drawer library case. Each richly illustrated "book mark" represents a title that has left an imprint on Page's life. Arranged chronologically in the order the books were read, the sections of plates correspond to the stages of her life undertaken in the individual chapters-child, young housewife, pilot, artist, widow, and traveler. The added layer of the author's personal history-sometimes whimsical, often fragmented-illuminates how the "mark" left by a book is anchored not only to its contents, but also to the memories associated with it, whether a hike guided by Alfred Wainright through England's Nannycatch Valley or a drive to Boston listening to Tuesdays with Morrie. A bibliophile's delight that will touch and inspire readers of any genre! Includes a complete bibliographic list of 434 titles-fiction, science, art, gardening, travel, history, biography, aviation, ecology, children's literature, and more-plus trivia on their publishing history; author and title indices for easy cross reference; and bound with two ribbon bookmarks, so readers can simultaneously mark their place in the plate section and corresponding page in the chapter.

Barbara Page

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