The World

I love maps almost as much as I love to travel. I think it is so interesting how they can so accurately represent reality in such a condensed and easy to read fashion. I am also drawn to the way they transform the paper they are on; the paper almost becomes the place it depicts, and with that other things fall into place, like direction. I appreciate the duality of maps. They are essential guides to our everyday lives, but they can also become very ornate or decorative; becoming an operative piece of art.

I started this world map about six months ago but still haven't decided what purpose I want it to serve. I have to decide if it will show climate, vegetation, topography, etc. 

3' x 6' It just so happened that when I took this photo there was this crazy profile of a man with a pot belly in the Atlantic Ocean!

Obviously this photo wasn't taken by my genius photographer friend Matt like the other one, it was taken by me...

So this is that state my world map has been in for a long time, and I'm afraid I wont really be able to work on it until the summer. Maybe I will try to finish it for my Rethinking Landscape class. I am going to add colorful patterns on the land, perhaps all of them being specific to their location or region. I also want to use region/country specific colors. Someday I would love to do this sort of thing with stone or jem inlays, even glass, but my skill level isn't quite there yet, or my ability to fund such a project. I would like to do a spherical globe as well as flat versions, and continent or even country specific pieces. I already did this map of Africa, which actually is what led to the world map.

22" x 30" / 2011

Most of the patterns within this piece were borrowed from patterns I saw within the tile work of Moroccan architecture when I was there in January of 2010. I changed the colors though; I tried to make them mimic the natural colors found in each vegetation region, and also stay true to Africa. The major color scheme is red, green, and yellow - the pan African colors. These three colors are found in the majority of Africa's countries flags. The biggest difference to this trend is in the flags of North Africa where Islam is the major religion practiced; and this is reflected in their flags. Both maps are done in prismacolor markers. They're supposed to be kinda trippy and mostly just fun to look at.