Riffing off the centuries-old Native American tradition of Ledger Book drawings, Brian D. Tripp’s Right From the Start is an epic and encyclopedic series of iconic drawings and poems that were made over a decade in a classic ‘Composition’ notebook. Tripp’s evocative drawings illustrate his particular take on Karuk iconography and cosmology with a focus on the anthropomorphizing of rocks and other geological forms. The book illuminates Karuk life and beliefs with passion and humor providing an instructive and inspiring window into one of the few indigenous cultures that have never been forced out of their people’s land of origin.

Sophia Kramer of White Iris Books (Kramer has been Brian’s binder for over a decade) designed the ‘golden bling’ binding with the cut-out revealing the icon of the community spiral of life, extending Brian’s dramatic style and taciturn sense of humor to the book’s cover.