Andie Thrams

Bio

California-based visual artist Andie Thrams uses watercolors in wildland forests to create paintings and artist’s books that explore mystery, reverence, and delight, while grappling with the vanishing habitats of our era. Merging the lineages of illuminated manuscripts and natural history field journals with a contemporary art and science awareness, her paintings weave intricate botanical detail into rich layers of shape, color, and hand-lettered text to evoke the complex interconnections within ecosystems of the Greater West.

An interest in forests regularly takes her to remote places only accessible by foot or kayak for extended wilderness expeditions from Alaska to Baja California and Hawaii. She often invites natural materials and wild forces into her process by allowing seaweed or fungi to stain her paper, drawing with twigs dipped in ink, and leaving work out in the wind or rain. 

Andie Thrams grew up roaming the woodlands of the San Francisco Bay Area and began her career as a working artist while still in high school. She earned a BA in art practice from the University of California, Berkeley, and moved to Alaska soon after graduation. She has merged her devotion to art and outdoor adventure with stints as botanical illustrator, graphic designer, cartographer, calligrapher, exhibition designer, art educator, river guide, waitress, grocery bagger, ticket seller, and publisher. Her work is held in many public and private collections, is regularly exhibited, and has been honored by institutions including Sitka Center for Art & Ecology and Yosemite Renaissance. She lives in a small river town in the Sierra Nevada foothills with her husband. They spend time in the wilds whenever they can.

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Public Collections

Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library Special Collection, Provo, UT
Chugach State Park, Eagle River, AK
Emory University, Robert W. Woodruff Library Special Collections, Atlanta, GA
Glacier National Park Museum, West Glacier, MT
Indiana University-Purdue University, Herron Art Library, Special Collections, Indianapolis, IN
Key Bank Collection, Portland, OR
Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL
Savanah College of Art and Design, Jen Library Special Collections, Savannah, GA
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, The W. Van Alan Clark, Jr. Library, Boston, MA
Scripps College, Ella Strong Denison Library, Claremont, CA
Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, Otis, OR
Swarthmore College, Special Collections, Swarthmore, PA
Union College Library, Schaffer Library Special Collections, Schenectady, NY
University of California, Bancroft Library Special Collections, Berkeley, CA
University of California, Davidson Library Special Collections, Santa Barbara, CA
University of California, McHenry Library Special Collections, Santa Cruz, CA
University of California, Shields LIbrary Special Collections, Davis, CA
University of California, Young Research Library, Special Collections, Los Angeles, CA
University of Denver, Penrose Library Special Collections, Denver, CO
University of Georgia, Special Collections, Athens, GA
University of Iowa, Special Collections & Archives, Iowa City, IA
University of Nevada, Special Collections Library, Reno, NV
University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Philadelphia, PA
University of Southern California Library, Doheny Memorial Library Special Collections, Los Angeles, CA
University of Tennessee, Special Collections, Knoxville, TN
University of Vermont, Jack and Shirley Silver Special Collections Library, Burlington, VT
University of Wisconsin, Special Collections, Madison, WI
University of Washington Library, Special Collections, Seattle, WA
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library Special Collection, Logan, UT
Washington University Library, Special Collections, St. Louis, MO
Yale University Library, Faber Birren and Beinecke Collections, New Haven, CT