James Prosek

An extraordinarily talented artist, writer, and musician, James Prosek is a passionate voice for conservation, wild trout habitat, and the sport of fly fishing. James will be advising us on how we can raise awareness about conservation issues in the coming years and is generously allowing his artwork to be used to help raise funds for World Trout and other conservation causes. Winston's friendship with James goes back to 1996, when we were first introduced to the young naturalist and his work: Trout: An Illustrated History (Knopf, 1996), which he published as an undergraduate at Yale with watercolors of seventy species, subspecies, and strains of North American trout. We were lucky enough to feature his artwork in our 1997 catalog, ad campaign, and accessory line. And we've been ardent fans ever since.

James furthered his study of native trout species in his travels abroad from 1996 - 2003. His extensive research into the trout of Europe, Asia, and North Africa is beautifully recorded in his book: Trout of the World, an illustrated history of the native species he encountered in his travels. In 2004, James, along with Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia, founded World Trout, an ongoing conservation effort to preserve native trout species worldwide.

Winston is pleased to join the effort by contributing proceeds from the sales of our Winston World Trout T-shirts, our Winston World Trout Mugs and our signed James Prosek books to World Trout. James is dedicated to preserving native trout species around the world and bringing public awareness to the threats to their habitat. "Preserving diversity of indigenous trout species around the world is also about preserving our last coldwater wildernesses, and arguably our most precious resource, clean water."

In his latest book, Eels - An Exploration, From New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Amazing and Mysterious Fish, James Prosek takes us on a fascinating journey through the life history and cultural associations of the freshwater eel, exploring its biology in streams and epic migrations in the ocean, its myth and lore, its mystery and beauty. Illustrated with etchings by the author, Eels is a mesmerizing biography and history of this intriguing and mysterious creature. It is also a telling look at humanity, the will to persist, and the ever-changing relationship between man and the natural world.

• Trout: An Illustrated History (Knopf, 1996)
• Joe and Me: An Education in Fishing and Friendship (Morrow, 1997)
• The Complete Angler (HarperCollins, 1998)
• Early Love and Brook Trout (Lyons Press, 2000)
• Fly-Fishing the 41st Parallel (HarperCollins, 2003)
• Trout of the World (Stewart Tabori and Chang, 2003)
• A Good Day's Fishing (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
• The Day My Mother Left (Simon & Schuster, 2007)
• Bird, Butterfly, Eel (Simon & Schuster, 2009)
• Eels An Exploration, From New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Amazing and Mysterious Fish, 2010

His recent exhibit: James Prosek: Suriname, draws on field notes and watercolors James made in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in late March and April 2010, as a member of a biological research and collecting expedition sponsored by Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Part of the body of work consists of paintings that Prosek made in the field, between duties of collecting and skinning birds, oftentimes at night by headlamp. A separate body of work was made in his Connecticut studio, based on sketches, journals and photographs. In these works, the subjects are intentionally distorted (referencing anamorphic perspective) to show that whenever humans gaze at or try to define or represent nature it is inevitably a distortion. Actual specimens collected on the expedition will also be on display, on loan from the Peabody.

Prosek is concerned in both his painting and writing with themes of how and why we name and order the natural world. The collecting site in central Suriname, a previously unexplored and unnamed mountain area in one of the largest untouched tropical forests of the world, was the ideal test site for the artist's inquiry.

World Trout with James Prosek (see the Education section of The Winston Channel).