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Obi Kaufmann’s Newest Book
Obi Kaufmann’s Love Story for California Continues with Newest Book
Obi Kaufmann has dedicated his life to studying California’s natural world. His writing and art are influenced by a path combining science, an inquisitive and creative mind, a knack for research and an unquenchable wanderlust. And the good news—this adventure through Obi’s subjective lens—is available as an invitation to us all to join him.
By Laura Petersen
This spring, the artist and author is releasing the much-anticipated newest book in his California Field Atlas series. The Coasts of California, a nearly 700-page odyssey, is sure to be an instant Kaufmann classic alongside The California Field Atlas, The Forests of California and The State of Water— Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource.
Native plants, animals and landscapes come to life in warm, earthy watercolors, immediately charming and drawing the reader into the pages of the latest addition in the natural history series published by HeyDay Books. Easily accessible to nature lovers young and old, anyone who picks up a copy can embark on Kaufmann’s world of analytic discovery, diving deep into art, ecology and philosophy. Illustrated stories and maps spin an almost fantastic tale, spanning ridgelines and rivers, mountains and valleys. Yet this is no myth or makebelieve. These characters and places are as tangible as our own backyards. “These books are me looking at California. This is my process of figuring it out. The reader is invited into the narrative that is affectionate, intimate and loving,” says the artist and naturalist who has captured the hearts and minds of many in recent years. Finding his way along this journey to get to know California’s wonders, Kaufmann has developed a specific analytical approach to storytelling that shares his unique voice and eye. To make sense of his surroundings, he has invented a new genre of nature handbook, affectionately referring to them as love stories and family albums. Over time, his relationship to his subject has matured and deepened, allowing him, and us, to tap into a rich vastness of biodiversity across the biosphere more infinite than the human mind is able to comprehend. “The more I learn about California and nature, the more that I find there is to learn. It’s like a magic well and I’m drinking from this well and as I’m drinking and drinking and drinking, the water level doesn’t go down, in fact there’s more water to drink from.”
Bursting with color, The Coasts of California is in Kaufmann’s signature style, fusing science with art and pure poetic reverie. And much more than a survey of tourist spots, Coasts is a full immersion into the astonishingly varied natural worlds that hug California’s shoreline. With hundreds of gorgeous watercolor maps and illustrations, Kaufmann explores the rhythms of the tides, the lives of sea creatures, the shifting of rocks and sand, and the special habitats found on California’s islands. At the book’s core is an expansive, detailed walk down the California Coastal Trail, including maps of parks along the way—a wealth of knowledge for any coast-lover.
A leap of faith
Kaufmann is the son of an astrophysicist and clinical psychologist and grew up in the East Bay, scrambling around Mt. Diablo on weekends. Trained from an early age to be a mathematician by his late father who studied the cosmos, the artist and poet is very sensitive to what science is. “I realized at some point how he explored the universe, I explored California, as a metaphor for looking at nature in general.”
Kaufmann spent 20 years as a gallery artist, never able to leave his day job, until the day he put away the oil paints, picked up watercolors and returned to his childhood hobby of backpacking. It is here that he has found his niche, a space to thrive. “I saw this space. I didn’t know what it was going to be. I just knew every page should drip with color and soul.” It is a mucky process, he explains, that requires making map after map, painting after painting, followed by painstaking editing where half the collected content is thrown out. Often, the organization and arrangement of the book does not reveal itself until the final phase. “It’s a perilous act of faith that I have to invest in and just hope it comes out at the end.” Kaufmann has a connection to Nevada County’s own Yuba Watershed. His mom lives near the headwaters in the mountain town of Truckee and he regularly visits friends in Nevada City. In the past, his writing has taken him to a cabin in Sierra City, on the North Yuba. Kaufmann’s examination of California’s complex and intricate waterscapes illuminates very clearly how what happens upstream affects what happens downstream. The food we grow, the return of wild fisheries, the lessons we learn from Indigenous cultures; our very existence depends on finding the right balance. Kaufmann sees small family farms, community-supported farmers markets and food cooperatives that value a “locavore” mentality over big industrial agriculture as important links in a sustainable future. “You’re taking care of a value system that is approachable and investigatively sustainable. We don’t really know what sustainability is. Talk to me after a thousand years. It’s all largely like we are
Yuba River painting by Obi Kaufmann
In this book, full-color maps unravel the braided knot of California’s water infrastructure and ecosystems, exposing a history of unlimited growth in spite of finite natural resources—a history that has led to its current precarious circumstances. In The State of Water Kaufmann argues that environmental conservation and restoration efforts are necessary not only for ethical reasons but also as a matter of human survival. Offering nine perspectives to illustrate the most pressing challenges facing California’s water infrastructure, from dams to species revitalization, Kaufmann reveals pragmatic yet inspiring solutions to how water in the West can continue to support agriculture, municipalities, and the environment.
feeling our way. If we have a shot, I bet you all (food cooperatives like BriarPatch) are on to what might be our best bet.” In California’s Central Valley, as technology for water conservation increases, new wells are being drilled at alarming rates for “big ag” crops like almonds, olives and wine grapes. Without oversight and careful regulation, this could set the stage for environmental disaster. Traveling extensively up and down the state for book tours, Kaufmann doesn’t see the individual as the problem. Instead, it’s the rhetoric from big venture capitalists that distracts us from what matters. “Everywhere I’ve gone, there’s nobody who wants a degraded environment. We all want to be a healthy people on a healthy land. Getting there involves community-oriented efforts, like the food co-ops. This is where you move your values with your dollars.” In many ways, Kaufmann’s books are a wake-up call to take care of and preserve the beauty right in front of us. Every single one of our national landscapes in California is either threatened or endangered, but despite that fact California has a very low species extinction rate, less than 1 percent. This gives us hope. “So, what that means, is that it is all still here. What that means is that there is a 16 miracle to steward. I’m not saying there are any laurels to rest on, because if and when it goes, it’s going to go hard. At this point, what I’m suggesting is just as likely, there is a point of hope for every point of despair. It is entirely possible to conceive of California’s natural world to be in better shape at the end of the 21st century than how we left it at the end of the 20th century.” Extreme wildfire, drought and historic winter storms have left us all a little shaken, creating climate anxiety among the hardiest Californians. Yet, California is on track to become carbon neutral by 2045, making the state a world leader in environmental responsibility and leadership. “Nature has an inclination toward regener- ation. With half a chance, nature rebounds.” Right before us, all around us, we can find a great stillness, by getting out and developing a relationship with our watershed and the natural world.
Kaufmann asks those who come to hear him speak — When was the last time you went camping? Go to the Yuba. Take off your shoes. Dip your toes into the water, he encourages. “Quietly, let yourself be there, just for a moment. Whatever happens, we are going to need you grounded, centered and unpanicked. Whatever happens, we are going to need you, calm,” says Kaufmann. The prolific writer who hasn’t taken a day off in years is already deep into the next installment of the Field Guide series, The Deserts of California. After that, he’s planning a year-long retreat from his writing desk to lace up his hiking boots, sling on a pack and set out on a walking book tour of California, visiting mountain trails, backroads and towns up and down the state. Nevada City and Grass Valley bookstores will surely be on the route. Stay tuned!
Learn more about Obi Kaufmann:
californiafieldatlas.com heydaybooks.com/authors/obi-kaufmann Follow on Instagram @coyotethunder
The Forests of California features an abundance of Obi Kaufmann’s signature watercolor maps and trail paintings, weaving them into an expansive and accessible exploration of the biodiversity that defines California in the global imagination. Expanding on the style of the Field Atlas, Kaufmann tells an epic story that spans millions of years, nearly one hundred species of trees, and an astonishing richness of ecosystems. The lessons in this book extend well beyond California’s borders. If Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees and Richard Powers’s The Overstory opened readers’ eyes to the awesome power of arboreal life, The Forests of California gives readers a unique and unprecedented immersion in that power.
