Hannah Abebe
The Mountaineers is thrilled to welcome artist, climber, and adventurer Jeremy Collins to the BeWild Speaker Series for an evening unlike any other. Fresh off the release of his new graphic memoir, Eventually a Sequoia: Stories of Art, Adventure & the Wisdom of Giants, Collins is bringing his creative process to life through an immersive performance that blends visual art, storytelling, and environmental reflection.
In this behind-the-scenes look, Jeremy shares how his journals, inspirations, and even a little “encouraged mess” are shaping the one-of-a-kind experience he’s preparing for the BeWild stage.
Here is Jeremy in his own words about the process of bringing his book to life:
Two years ago, I received an email from my long-time editor, Kate Rogers at Mountaineers Books. She was once again nagging me to write a second graphic memoir. “You have the stories, Jer, so write the book!” She was right; I had the stories and, more importantly, a desire to share new art and new ideas. So I wrote the book.
When I tour for Eventually a Sequoia, I want to create a space to step into and explore a life-size rendition of my journals on which the stories are based, to play and experiment with a more physical visual. I have always adored multidisciplinary performance pieces from Robert Rauschenberg, the large whimsical installations of Margaret Kilgallen, or any raw, unrefined museum experience that feels temporal. Installation work to me is never about the artist trying to sell me anything. The point is to get pulled into a story and the artist’s reality. That kind of in-the-moment rawness is deeply attractive to me. Adding to it on tour will be complex, of course, but also an engaging way to represent my process.
The depth for my art and inspirations largely comes from natural experiences and wild places. But I am also a city person. I love layers of graffiti, modern petroglyphs to bygone urban eras, city lights, angular buildings. Illegible tagging, wheat paste art, and sticker slapping scream civil disobedience which can be equally annoying and radically refreshing, but always emphatically saying: you are in the city.
This juxtaposition of nature and city found its way into the work I am doing for this book tour. I start with urban layers, art influenced by graffiti and tagging, then bring in typography which is crucial within my journals, then I let the shapes inform what the work becomes. I don't make a plan. There are no draft sketches. It is purely responsive, although also clearly thematic, taking its cues from the book itself.
After the layers of urban-influenced work, I bring in the natural forms: flowers, wildlife, and hints at landscape elements. In a way the natural ingredients overtake the urban ones, just like they do for me on a regular basis, both literally and spiritually. Working in large format as in a mural or for this tour, my strokes are more physical and expressive, in contrast to the more measured and precise line work from the page. Many years ago I worked with the political cartoonist Pat Oliphant. A Pulitzer Prize winner, his cartoon work is legendary and ruthless. As we leaned over a table while I carefully prepared his work for animation, he grabbed the pen from me and said, “Make it messy! Don’t let anyone ever talk you out of being messy with your work!” This has stuck with me for decades now, and I mutter it under my breath whenever I’m feeling too controlled. With Eventually a Sequoia, the book and its tour installation, you will see Oliphant’s encouraged mess.
As the saying goes, creative work is never complete, only abandoned. But in my case, I intend to keep picking away at this particular work throughout the book tour, leaving drawings half-finished so I can return to them later, at the next stop. This is the same approach I take with my journals during expeditions. I’m capturing the moment, but not every splash of paint or line needs to be created right then. The art is a journey itself.
My wife and I were once walking through the streets of New York after an evening rain. We passed an open gallery and caught a glimpse of something miraculous: a Thomas Campbell installation. He had taken over an entire room with elements of his life – surfboards, drawings, ephemera, and finished paintings. We both love his work and have a number of his pieces in our home. If we knew the work was there, we would have planned a day around it, but I almost prefer that it came as a surprise. What a gift. Even though I have made clear my intent with this tour, I still hope it catches folks by (pleasant) surprise, that the stories of the people and experiences in my book will gain a richer meaning for the audience through this more spatial effort.
A friend recently saw me agonizing over the installation prep and asked “Why does it have to be so involved? Can’t you just do a reading?” I looked at him dumbfounded. My first thought was to say, “Umm, maybe you’re right?” But then, I think of Kate’s not so subtle nudge, “You have the stories, so write the book.” We can have an idea but never do something about it. We can have a vision but never start on it. So, I am doing and starting something I’ve felt drawn to and I hope to see you out there with it.
Don’t miss your chance to experience Jeremy Collins’ Eventually a Sequoia brought to life on stage.
BeWild Speaker Series | Eventually a Sequoia with Jeremy Collins
For more information about the full 2025 BeWild line up please see our website.
This BeWild Speaker Event is brought to you by The Mountaineers in partnership with the Sierra Club.
About Sierra Club: The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. They amplify the power of their millions of members and supporters to defend everyone’s right to a healthy world. Please visit their website at sierraclub.org/washington.
