About Boreal Wilderland: Art, Science, and Adventure in Earth’s Greatest Wilderness
The boreal forest, a vast northern wilderness that encircles the globe, is three times the size of the Amazon, has the photosynthetic output of over a trillion trees, and is within a day’s drive of major urban centers such as New York City, Chicago, Vancouver, and Moscow, and within an hour of Montreal. Yet most people have no idea that wilderness on this scale still exists. In Boreal Wilderland, acclaimed wildlife and wilderness artist, expedition canoeist, and naturalist Rob Mullen presents a stunning, multifaceted portrait of this immense and breathtaking biome.
With vivid prose and stunning artwork, and a foreword by Robert Bateman, Boreal Wilderland reveals a place that is ecologically essential―the wilderness is critical to the planet’s climate, to wildlife, to freshwater systems. Home to hundreds of Indigenous communities since time immemorial, the boreal forest is also awe-inspiring in its beauty and scale. The three decades of paintings, sketches, and photographs by thirty artists, along with the firsthand stories represented here were inspired by twenty WREAF art expeditions, mostly by canoe, from Labrador to Alaska. Gruelling, mind-expanding, funny, and often dangerous, these journeys are the source of the book’s many adventure stories. Six experts offer a unique lens and scientific insight into this magnificent and vital ecosystem.
Boreal Wilderland is more than just a travelogue or an art book. It is an in-depth look at the forest’s natural and human history. This extraordinary volume offers a rich visual archive and a compelling call to see the boreal forest for what it truly is: the wild heart of our planet.
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Author Bio:
I am an “APO Native” Vermonter (born to Vermont parents on active military duty out of state) a unique designation invented and bestowed by Governor Dean Davis in 1968. Growing up in Vermont I did all of the usual Norman Rockwell things rural Vermont kids did, even including attending one day at the West Bolton one-room schoolhouse. Able to draw preternaturally well from a very young age, I was sometimes in trouble for drawing pictures in class instead of listening. My fifth grade art teacher, Mr. Kennedy, was the first person to tell me that I could become a professional. But science seemed to win out.
Inspiring exasperated eye-rolls from my maternal grandfather in Proctor, Vermont, I found the critters and habitats of the shoreline microcosms vastly more interesting than barbing some hapless worm on a hook. That is, in essence, what led me to a degree in biology. However, my lab drawings led to illustrating for professors, and … upon graduation, I headed for NYC with the goal of becoming the “Audubon of Bugs.” After 16 years as a freelance advertising artist (the biological illustrations didn’t pay well), in 1994, I returned to Vermont with two brilliant young daughters and plunged headlong into wildlife art.
After years on the national art show circuit, I started a series of 20 wilderness art expeditions from Labrador – Alaska during which I moved back to West Bolton and captured a beautiful Canadian in Montreal. Bonnie and I now live with the treasured beaver pond of my youth, Preston Pond, in the backyard.