Rock of Ages, Sands of Time

"Each one of Barbara Page's 544 contiguous painted panels represents a million years of the history of life on Earth, with fossil plants and animals depicted at the same scale and in association with each other, just as they might be found by a paleontologist in the field. A muted rainbow of background colors evokes the rocks in which the fossils were found - the Texas Red Beds, for instance, or yellow Solnhofen limestone - and keystone events are shown metaphorically, with fat rolls of paint marking major extinctions or continental drift.". "To fully experience the awesome impact of an eon's worth of time spread across 500 feet of bas-relief panels, you'd have to visit the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, New York, where Page's specially commissioned work will be installed when the museum opens in 2002. But this book is the next best thing. Not only does it contain crisp color reproductions of each painting, but it also includes an accessible essay by paleontologist Warren Allmon giving the scientific context behind the art.". "For fossil lovers of all ages, and anyone interested in the merging of art and science, Rock of Ages, Sands of Time will be the find of a lifetime."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.