WonderStump Field Guide Project
A collaboratively created library of experience and observation
As the STUMP Corps continues to progress ever further into multidimensional conservation efforts, it has come to my attention that we are in need of both observational and creative contribution.
Gaps in our documentation system have left the forest with more questions than answers. What lies beyond the fringe of Rufadian Canis shrubbery on (name redacted) Outpost 7? Where is the origin point of Egipygrath Cicidia larvae? What visual representations of forest-driven emotion are common (or uncommon) to native creatures and co-organisms?
With these questions yet unanswered, we are requesting assistance from civilian researchers via the issuance of a limited number of (currently) blank WonderStump Field Guides.
Your mission is simple: observe, document, speculate, create.
Return your Field Guide to the WonderStump forest, where it will become part of our permanent archive. Your contribution will be used by visitors to navigate and thoughtfully explore the varied experiences, real or imagined, that occur in worlds beyond.
With utmost appreciation for your contribution to the record,
Margaret
From the desk of Margaret Ann Dendromeda
Lead Xenobiologist and founding member of STUMP Corps
Project Brief
Human artists, researchers, writers, and otherwise interested contributors pay a $30 fee in exchange for a participation kit.
Each kit includes:
A 5”x8” 30 page blank field guide (60 useable sides plus covers)
An instruction postcard featuring an area of exploration prompt, which can be used later to send a note to someone
An official STUMP Corps Researcher pin
A generous supply of positive energy
A place in the Field Guide archive, where your work will be publicly displayed in WonderStump’s immersive art exhibit
Invitation to a future Contributing Artists showcase event
Participants fill their Field Guide in whatever way they see fit: documenting observations, recording discoveries, creating artwork, writing, mapping, speculating, or inventing entirely new methods of research.
Completed Field Guides are returned to WonderStump, where they become part of the permanent Field Guide archive inside the immersive art exhibit.
Together, these contributions form a growing record of the varied ways humans perceive, interpret, and imagine the worlds beyond.
An analog repository of human experience and observation, which visitors can explore and learn from.
Detailed Project Information
Are you the next STUMP Corps field agent? Read on!
Who Can Participate?
Anyone! You do not need to be an artist or have any particular experience or skill level. All ages are welcome. Follow the prompt and use your Field Guide in whatever way makes sense to you. The Field Guide Project also makes a great gift for the creative explorers in your life ✨
This isn't a class, a competition, or a submission call. It's an invitation to contribute to a growing work of community art. Your $30 participation fee covers your Field Guide kit and helps support the creation and care of the permanent archive. In return, you become part of the STUMP Corps and contribute a piece of human observation, imagination, or experience to a collection that others can discover.
What Can I Put in My Field Guide?
Anything that helps document, interpret, or imagine your area of exploration. Drawing, painting, writing, collage, printmaking, photography, mapping, diagrams, observations, collected information, and mixed media are all welcome.
Don’t like the prompt? No problem! Artists and researchers alike are known and revered for breaking boundaries. Go for it.
There is no required style, format, or number of entries.
A Few Material Guidelines
Because completed Field Guides will become part of a permanent, publicly handled collection, please avoid materials that can transfer to other pages or people.
Do not use: oil pastel, soft pastel, charcoal, loose glitter, or other materials that smear, shed, flake, or transfer.
These materials may be used only if they are completely sealed with an appropriate impermeable finish and cannot transfer to another surface.
Please also avoid wet, hazardous, toxic, biological, or otherwise unsafe materials.
If using acrylic paint, avoid painting two facing pages, as painted surfaces can stick together when the Field Guide is closed.
You are welcome to remove pages, add embellishments, re-bind, alter the cover, or otherwise modify your Field Guide. Just keep the finished book within the original 5" × 8" format.
When you return your Field Guide, WonderStump will add an identification label to the back cover. We’ll do our best to place it around your artwork, but a small portion of your back cover artwork may be covered by the label.
What Happens When I Finish?
Bring your completed Field Guide back to WonderStump during regular open hours. You will fill out a final submission form which includes your artist statement or field guide description. This form can optionally be emailed to you ahead of time- just drop us a request at info@wonderstump.art
Your work will become part of the permanent Field Guide archive and will be displayed within the immersive exhibit for visitors to explore. When someone taps your guide with their personal device, they will be able to view the information you have submitted. Self promotion is encouraged!
We recommend photographing your completed work before submitting it.
Do I Get My Field Guide Back?
No. Submitted Field Guides become part of the permanent archive and will not be returned.
You retain copyright to your work. By participating, you grant WonderStump permission to display, photograph, reproduce, publish, and share your Field Guide in connection with the Field Guide Project and WonderStump.
We will credit your work using the name you provide in the final submission form. You may request a different credit name, a group name, or no public name at all when you submit your Field Guide.
If you fall in love with your Field Guide and decide you'd rather keep it, that's okay too. Your participation is still a contribution to the project ✨
Content Guidelines
We welcome work that is strange, challenging, funny, beautiful, unsettling, imaginative, or unexpected.
Works containing mature or frightening content may be displayed in a separate adult-only section of the archive.
Not eligible for display: content that promotes, endorses, or advocates for racism, sexism, misogyny, hate or dehumanization, targeted harassment, sexual exploitation or abuse, or other material inappropriate for public exhibition will not be displayed.
WonderStump reserves the right to determine whether and where a submitted Field Guide is displayed.
Beyond that, there are very few rules. We're excited to see what you discover!
How to Participate
Pick up a kit: In person at WonderStump during regular open hours. Please see our calendar on the home page for current hours.
Complete your Field Guide: Take it with you and conduct your research.
Return it: Bring your completed Field Guide back to WonderStump during regular open hours.
For now, pickup and drop-off are in person only. Online ordering and mail-in/mail-out options are planned for the future.
WonderStump is located at
301 Petaluma Blvd. North
in downtown Petaluma, CA
From the Archives
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Daily: A Collection
Kirsten Bjore
Since discovering the perfectly sized sketchbook, Kirsten has inadvertently documented a portion of her life in a similar-but-different-books shelf full of pictures, prose, notes, and moments slipped between pages.This was the start of the Field Guide Project idea.
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Field Guide #2022
Kirsten Bjore
An early envisioning of a wonder stump(!) and detail of the insect friends merry-go-round inside. -
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Field Guide #2026
josh cardenas
A stump can be so many things! -
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Field Guide #2017
Ms. G
The kid used to steal from me. Erasers, fancy pens, at worst x-acto blades. I locked my purse and smiled at him, chastised him. “Stealing is wrong, kid. Lay off.”One day he silently slipped me a piece of paper, brown eyes filled with sadness…
