A Record of Time: A Journal of Wanderlust
Designer and artist Sean Woolsey captures a sense of wonder and adventure in nature
by Kohl Crecelius
It wasn’t long after SoCal-based artist, designer, and craftsman Sean Woolsey (already a CH favorite) came across a quote by American author John Green, that he and his wife bought a 1987 VW Westfalia van and took off on a road trip around the US. The quote (from the book “Looking for Alaska”) read, “You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present.” Those words are nothing short of haunting for anyone progressing into their late 20s. Most people have felt it, but the true dilemma is what to do about it.
For Woolsey and his wife—both independent designers—the balance of leveraging their creativity as both a passion and a profession is difficult. So, in an effort to recalibrate their creative energy, they took their van to the one place they have always found inspiration: Nature.
Adding film photography to his long list of artistic attributes before leaving on their trip, Sean captured the couple’s moments spent under the stars at the many national parks, rest-stops, and open roads that lay ahead. The collection of his work is now accessible in a 64-page limited edition zine and a wood-printed photo series entitled “A Record of Time | A Journal of Wanderlust.” Woolsey’s images beautifully depict the journey, the spirit of adventure and moments of revelation. As he puts it in the zine’s preface: “Never knowing exactly what is going to happen is the adventure for me in this life, and also in my work.”
“A Record of Time: A Journal of Wanderlust” wood-prints and zines (limited to 150 copies) are available online. Zines are $11 and prints start at $50.
Photos by Kohl Crecelius
