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— xi — Foreword: Out of White The most charismatic of the great cats may have seen me in the wild, but I have not seen it, nor do I ever expect to. All my snow leopard paintings have been based on animals I observed in zoos. Though I have never seen a snow leopard in the wild, I have ventured into its mountainous world. My wife, Birgit, and I accompanied Helen Freeman, founder of the Snow Leopard Trust, to the edge of snow leopard country in the Himalayan region of India, Sikkim, and Nepal. Over the years, we have gotten to know Rodney Jackson and become close friends with Peter Matthiessen, two of the contributing authors to this moving collection of essays. Their stories, along with the others in this book, exemplify the personal connection between a rare cat and the scientist-explorer drawn to study and protect it. Hermann Hesse wrote in his novel Narcissus and Goldmund that “true art must have a sense of mystery.” It is likely that my artistic fascination with the snow leopard comes with its innate sense of mystery. Also, I have a love of muted colors. The subtle F o r e w o r d — xii — variety of grays in this cat’s fur has far more appeal to me than the vibrancy of a scarlet macaw. Darkness is associated with mystery, but so are mist and whiteness. In the painting Out of the White I was feeling a hope that snow leopards are emerging into a brighter and clearer future. Just recently, we once again traveled the high roads of snow leopard country, enjoying the beauty of Ladakh’s iconic monasteries and watching blue sheep graze on steep mountainsides. We saw no snow leopards but sensed their presence, feeling lucky and thrilled to be under the distant gaze of this magnificent cat. May you experience a similar feeling as you read about the snow leopard in this remarkable collection. ROBERt BAtEmAN ...

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