A notebook saturated with ochres in Gustafson's studio. In Book of Earth, Gustafson expresses her love for ochre and details how it permeates her life in unexpected ways. “I love American superstar Cardi B's way of saying ‘okurrrrrr,'" she quips. About five miles from the United States–Canada border, across the vineyards and raspberry barrens and the oxbow bends of Washington state’s Nooksack River, a dead-end road hangs a sharp left, sending me in the direction of artist Heidi Gustafson’s cabin. A view of snow-capped Mount Baker (or, in Nooksack, Kollia-Kulshan—“white, shining, steep mountain”) disappears behind the trees as I get deep into its foothills. In the shade of a woodland is Gustafson’s one-story, three-room home, formerly a music studio. From the outside, it looks charmingly cobbled together, dressed up with sage and dandelions and a sun-faded garland of prayer flags. One would never guess it houses the world’s best known, broadest reaching and most carefully amassed collection of natural pigments—a rainbow-colored assortment of dust ground from an ancient iron-based, oxygen-rich substance called ochre. This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty-Nine Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 51 Emily Gernild The Danish painter breathing new life into an old medium. Arts & Culture Food Issue 51 Imogen Kwok The artist takes food styling quite literally, creating accessories out of fruits and vegetables. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Karin Mamma Andersson Inside the moody, mysterious world of Sweden’s preeminent painter. Arts & Culture Issue 49 Amalie Smith The Danish arts writer finding clarity between the lines. Arts & Culture Issue 48 Jordan Casteel The acclaimed painter of people—and now plants. Arts & Culture Issue 48 The Art of Fashion On what artists’ clothes communicate.
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