Wild

About the Book

In Wild, renowned fish artist Flick Ford presents 75 freshwater tropical fish portraits and an accompanying text focused on their sustainability in the wild. These popular species, which gave rise to the second biggest hobby in the world, ornamental fish-keeping, face an uncertain future. Wild is that rare combination of art book and natural history for nature lovers, hobbyists, and conservationists.

A unique book in the field, Wild also covers each tropical fish’s natural habitat and the threats those environments face in the Americas, Africa, and Australasia. Habitat maps for the 75 species and a glossary of scientific aquatic terms round out the book’s overview. With anecdotal stories from tropical fish breeders and advice from collectors in the field, Wild is a gorgeous, informative, and affordable book that will enhance the enjoyment of tropical fish for the layman and hobbyist alike.

Meet the Author

Born in 1954 in Atlanta, Flick Ford was raised in Westchester County, New York. He fell in love with fishing at age five. His father, an accomplished fly-fisherman and talented commercial artist/copywriter, instilled in him a deep respect for nature and nurtured his early creativity.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Flick fished the Adirondacks, New England, Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, and the woodland lakes of Quebec, while pursuing two other passions: music (as lead singer in a garage rock band) and art.  He took formal watercolor classes in the ‘60s, figure drawing and graphic design classes between 1973 and 1976, and then studied art at Evergreen State College in Washington. Flick moved to New York City in 1978 and dove into the audio/visual scene of indie film, video, underground publishing, cartooning, illustration, and he reconnected with music. He performed in the East Village with several bands, and wrote and sang lead in The Crazy Pages for almost twenty years.

He left New York in 1993 and became obsessed with fishing all over again. The effects of over twenty years of pollution and over-development became painfully apparent - “I felt I should start to keep a record of the fish I caught. I wanted to catch and paint these fish, and show how they appear to me in all their iridescent beauty. Three books later and I’m all about advocacy for all the world’s fisheries - freshwater and saltwater”

Today, Ford makes his home in Rensselaer County, New York. He fishes more than one hundred days a year and ties his own flies.  Flick Ford is a talented painter, musician and graphic artist. His love of angling and the natural world has led him to specialize in fine art paintings of fish. Flick's work has been published in three recent books, "FISH: 77 Great Fish of North America" (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2006) and "BIG: The 50 Greatest World Record Catches" (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2008), “WILD: 75 Freshwater Tropical Fish of the World” (Greenwich Workshop Press, 2013).