California's Wild Edge: The Coast in Prints, Poetry, & History

July 8 to October 8, 2017

This exhibition captured the beauty of the California coast from Mendocino, Point Reyes, and the San Francisco Bay down through Carmel, Big Sur, and Santa Monica. Woodblock artist Tom Killion’s prints combined exquisite color with dynamic composition to portray the coast’s ever-changing moods and diverse formations: storm tides crashing at Point Lobos, serene moonlit coves at Mendocino, and fog encircling the Golden Gate Bridge. Deepening the experience was poetry and prose from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder and other well-known California authors of the past and present. The addition of traditional Japanese woodblock prints (once owned by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and now in a private collection) provided context for Killion's work. The exhibition was originated by Tom Killion and the San Francisco Public Library and was based on a recent Heyday book by the same title co-authored by Tom Killion and Gary Snyder. It was traveled by Exhibit Envoy.