Cartographic Constructions

Valerie Goodwin creates quilts that convey "a sense of place using aerial views and maps as inspiration. I enjoy working with both realistic and abstract imagery." In this "Tale of 2 Campuses" she depicts the Florida state capital of Tallahassee, and the cultural divide between the Florida State University and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.



Her work is currently on exhibit through March 14 at the Gadsden Art Center in Quincy, Florida

Josh Dorman's Topographic Fleurs

Let's take a time out from sports and transit maps to take a look at mapping the soul. I am always drawn to artists who incorporate maps into their work. Josh Dorman often uses maps as an element in his paintings, or as in this case, he paints on the maps:


Four Fleurs
2008 acrylic on antique maps

The antique maps appear to be old United States Geological Survey topographical maps. Why paint on maps?

I collect outdated (pre-photography) textbooks, topographic maps, manuals, and documents. Paper that has lived a life and shows its age compels me to paint. I am intrigued by systems I do not understand and by information that is no longer relevant.

Josh's work is currently on exhibit at the Mary Ryan Gallery in New York. Time Out New York says:

Layering snippets of engraved illustrations redolent of Victorian encyclopedias over yellowing vintage maps, before adding painterly touches in ink and acrylic, Dorman conjures an imaginatively reordered universe teeming with organic and artificial life. Often transforming his topographical grounds into sweeping rural landscapes, he sprinkles each scene with incongruous groupings of flora and fauna, machinery and architecture, achieving a semi-improvised orchestration of multiple diverse parts into something like a symphonic whole.

HT to Kathi Flood

Fantasy Transit Maps

Aaron M. Renn at Urbanophile offers a collection of Fantasy Transit Maps. Here is one artist's (Michael Tyznik) vision of a subway system for Columbus, Ohio:



You can even buy a poster!

Other Fantasy Transit System cities include Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans.

Don't we all wish our cities had clean and efficient mass transit systems?

Kaffeslump World

Erik Johansson, of Gothenburg, Sweden, is a photographer who likes to have fun with Photoshop.

Kaffeslump (Coffee Spill?):



Via Bored Panda

Give the Gift of Map Books

The holiday shopping season is rapidly approaching. Here are two recently published books of interest to that cartophile on your shopping list:

The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography by Katharine Harmon

In a sequel, of sorts, to her previous book on map art, You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, Harmon promises to lead her readers to:

different destinations: places turned upside down or inside out, territories riddled with marks understood only by their maker, realms connected more to the interior mind than to the exterior world. These are the places of artists' maps, that happy combination of information and illusion that flourishes in basement studios and downtown galleries alike.

You Are Here featured previously on Cartophilia:
Happy Father's Day to Me
On the Road to...?
Be My Cartographic Valentine

Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities by Frank Jacobs

Jacobs has been publishing his hugely popular Strange Maps blog since 2006, where he "collects and comments on all kinds of cartographic curiosa". As has become a blogger custom lately, he has collected over one hundred of his strangest maps into this handsome soft cover coffee table book. Includes his extensive commentary.

UPDATE 11/13: The Freakonomics blog has an interview with Frank Jacobs (HT to The Map Room).

Interestingly, both books feature upside-down/inside-out maps on their covers.

Tell them Cartophilia sent you.

#495

Calendria

Electrofork designer and illustrator Elizabeth Daggar sent to me a copy of her "timely" 2010 calendar/poster, Calendria:



The twelve nations of Calendria take their names from months on the calendar: Decembreland, Januarria, Octsburg, etc. Included with each month is a history of its nation, with notes on its geography and culture.

But take a closer look at the map... so much seems familiar. In a special section of her website, she gives a detailed, step-by-step guide to how she created her world:

THE PROCESS
How to design a world? (It begins with a love of cartography.)

I really just wanted to design a map. The reemergence of Electrofork's annual calendar seemed a perfect excuse– to create a world that felt familiar, at least at first glance. Maybe a kind of Pangaea. The point of departure: screen shots of the two hemispheres of earth; one containing North and Central America, the other displaying Europe, the Near East and the Northern portion of Africa. This afforded both the scale and a motley of shapes to reference.

This cartographic flight of fancy should provide entertainment year-round. Available via Etsy.

United Steaks of America

Last month, I posted a photo of a steak map of the United States. The photo was sent to me by a carto-friend, but I could not find the source or the artist...

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Huffington Post had set up a gallery of this "steak art" by photographer and "food artist" Dominic Episcopo: The United Steaks of America.



You can even vote on your favorite ribeye or sirloin state.

Omey Island

Sean Corcoran is an Artist based in Waterford, Ireland. Well, I grew up in Waterford, Michigan. So, that's as good a reason as any to highlight his work:

Here is the map section from the Map + Guide + DVD that I have created of Omey Island, a tidal Island in Connemara off the coast of Galway in the west of Ireland. Below is some of the text and images from the Guide and a preview of the DVD;

From the mainland at Claddaghduff the island is inconspicuous and almost hidden. In fact you could drive along the coast road and not even realise the island exists in the panoramic view below you.

The island appears to only be accessible during low-tide...

Literary San Francisco

From the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle's book review section in July:

A nub of 47 square miles, much of it punctuated by vertigo-inducing hills, most of it surrounded by ocean water - half of it the open, not-so-tranquil Pacific, the other half the calm, protected currents of a gray-blue bay.

Just as San Francisco has been shaped by its dramatic earthquake-scarred, coastal setting, the city, despite its relative youth, has also been defined by legions of writers whose words have brought it to life. Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Alice Adams, Amy Tan, Michelle Tea - they have all etched the landscape for us.

UPDATE 8/20: Illustration by Ian Huebert.

HT to Orange

Kathi Flood

Kathi Flood is a visual artist, guerilla sociologist, storyteller and educator.

As a guerrilla sociologist, I make farcical, narrative assemblages, wallworks and installations that heroicize the sweaty, vulnerable, fumbling, stuttering, impulsive aspects of humanity in the face of corporate globalization and it’s resultant dehumanizing effects. I chew on issues that threaten our self-reliance, such as surveillance, demographic over-quantification and standardization. I do it tongue-in-cheek, crammed with worthy objects, objects with a rugged complexion and empathetic potential.

This piece, Sky Form, particularly caught my eye:

I translated a stained woman's form into a cloudy sky. Our house is on the breast, our local stores across the bottom, and a grungy shawl hangs loose against her back.

Interstate Highway System as Transit Map

This week Cartogrammar is highlighting the coincidence that two different city magazines used a transit map theme for the "Best of 2009" issues this year:



Also, coincidentally this week, while looking for something else I was reminded of this clever invention: The Eisenhower Interstate System (simplified) by Chris Yates:



Previously seen here and here, and available from the designer as a print.

London Cut Out

Famille Summerbelle offers designs and accessories for decorating a child’s room.



"This print is based on an original Famille Summerbelle hand paper cut of London. It shows detail of the central boroughs of London with the attractions and cultural pursuits that make London so special."

Paris also available.

HGTV Showdown Mexico City

I cannot say for sure if I have ever watched a program on HGTV, but Sunday night I received an urgent text message map alert from Hunter:

Mural map of Mexico City used as design element on HGTV Showdown right now.

Whereupon I quickly grabbed the Carto-remote and was able to catch a glimpse of this Carto-bedroom-design:

In each episode of HGTV Showdown, two design teams battle side-by-side on stage as they make over the same room for a couple whose decorating styles differ. With only four hours to work their magic under the scrutinizing eyes of the homeowners, the showdown is on to see which team will come up with the best plan for meeting the needs of both husband and wife, while transforming the room into an amazing space.

In tonight's episode teams tried to add style, honor Ray’s Mexican heritage and maximize the usable space in the challenge’s 660-square-foot apartment.

I don't know if I could handle that kind of nail-biting excitement on a regular basis but I like the wall mural. More photos here and here.

Thanks Hunter

#430

Middle Earth Map Boot

Item Not As Described takes a look at items advertised on Craigslist and wonders why anyone wouldn't want this crap these treasures (motto: Free is a Four Letter Word). Today, we look at Handpainted Middle Earth map on papier mache boot, circa 1979 and wonder why it hasn't yet found a home...



Maybe if it came with matching Narnia...

Butterfly Maps

Butterflies cut from vintage maps:



From Image Surgery

Via GeoLounge

Island Girl

"George Washingmachine" is a jazz musician from Australia (check out his music samples... good stuff!). He also dabbles in map art and he sent me a sample:

I'm yet to work on a specific 'art of mine' web site. I've been doing Island girls for a little while, had an exhibition earlier in the year in my home town of Sydney. The Island girls were a little while in development. But cheese cake poses from the 40's & 50's are perfect.

Beautiful women... maps... what else do you need?

Thanks, George!

Post #400! Woo hoo!

Map Bookshelf

Exhibition, just missed at Timothy Taylor Gallery in New York, work by Ron Arad:





I don't think I even have a single wall in my home long enough to accommodate this bookshelf. Maybe I could get a copy of the Midwest...

Photocartographies: Exhibit in LA

Photocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map

At the g727 gallery, Los Angeles, California, May 16 - July 3, 2009.

Photography and cartography are entwined in similar processes of subject orientation that structure our experience of social, environmental and virtual landscapes. A map is not a representation so much as a system of propositions. This project reveals mapping itself as a generative process of knowledge creation, a liberatory method for re-imagining and re-imaging our world, its built and natural environments, and the relationship between space and place.

In other words. Maps in art is cool...

Ringworld Manhattan

Several people sent this one to me:

Here & There is a map of Manhattan looking uptown from 3rd and 7th, and downtown from 3rd and 35th. It puts the viewer simultaneously above the city and in it where she stands, both looking down and looking forward.



Of course, science fiction fans immediately think of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama:



and Larry Niven's Ringworld:



Television's Babylon 5 also took place inside a circular space station:



and video game fans can't help but think of Halo (a blatant rip-off of Ringworld):

Aaron Burr for President Leads to a Balanced Italy

Oh, the fun we have finding things while looking for something else...

Recently, Mrs. Cartophiliac returned from a trip to Phoenix to visit an old friend. She posted several photos from her trip on Flickr, including several from this art installation, "Monument to the Unelected".



But wait! says the history geek cartophile, shouldn't this sign...

look like this?

I decided to assume the artist was being ironic or something like that...

So, who is this artist? I wondered. A bit of Googling revealed Nina Katchadourian as the culprit. Wait, I know that name... Of course! Last year I highlighted her piece of map art, Coastal Merger

A visit to her website reveals many other examples of her carto-art, including this piece from a series entitled, Geographic Pathologies

But this reminds me of yet another map...

Chromatic Diplomacy, a variant of the classic boardgame, Diplomacy. Chromatic is five-player variant but on a symmetrical map in an attempt to make it geographically balanced.



Serendipity.

Flounder Lee: US 1783 to 1894 720p

Big Car at the Murphy Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana.

March 6: A Music and Video Experiment, featuring video art and experimental music

Big Car's First Friday show for March will feature a bevy of local, regional, national and international video and sound artists... including local artist Flounder Lee (featured previously on Cartophilia). Lee will be featuring a map related video:



So, I asked him, "Am I reading it correctly that the red bits represent Native American reservations? or is that the yellow? and if so what are the red?"

His reply:

The red parts are where there was either multiple tribes that turned over land to the US at different times, or where the US claimed land but then tribes signed a treaty later finally actually releasing it. The yellow is just land that has not been turned over to the US yet or has been turned over and then back as in reservations. The blue is the US. For some reason I can't get it to upload in HD, it looks really nice when it does because the pieces move a lot. They are cowboys and Indians. Not sure if that is clear from the smaller youtube video. I pulled all the data from these out of the library of congress report in the year 1897. There is a lot of detail that is missed due to the resolution of plastic toys :) They represent a lot of area each.

Be My Cartographic Valentine 2009

Be my Cartographic Valentine:


Alison Murray Whittington

UPDATE 2/14: And now I can reveal this this print is also the Valentines Day gift to Mrs. Cartophiliac.



Zero Per Zero



Two Writing Teachers



Eric Rasmussen

More aerial photo valentines at Damn Cool Pics.


Be My Cartographic Valentine 2008

The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography

Alison Murray Whittington is the Chief Mapmaker at The Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography, her Etsy shop, where she offers prints and original map art and illustrations.

Strike out on fantastic journeys through imagination! Search for treasure and excitement! Inked with dip pens and illuminated with watercolor, each of these maps is a wonderful navigation tool for explorers, pirates, storytellers, map lovers, and adventurers of all ages.

Here we see the Land of Many Tales:

Just what every traveler needs... a definitive map of fairy tale land. (This is my first map with locations that I did not create but I assure you, all sources are in the public domain.) With this map, you can navigate your way across the landscape of traditional fairy tales and stories and perhaps come up with a few new stories of your own.

Stop in for a cup of tea with the seven dwarves, peek through the window at Sleeping Beauty, snack on cookies at the home of Red Riding Hood's grandma, visit the Marquis de Carabas and his faithful aide, Puss-in-Boots, and climb up Jack's Beanstalk (this one being a newly grown beanstalk, naturally, since Jack chopped the first one down. While you're reading the small print, please use appropriate safety gear when climbing any beanstalks).

Follow Alison's adventures in "paint and ink" at her blog or on Twitter.

Czech Artist Commemorates EU With Stereotypes

Czech artist David Cerny has put together a controversial sculpture to commemorate the European Union. Each country is represented by a stereotype: Romania has Dracula, Sweden has IKEA, France is on strike. Not surprisingly, more than a few countries are less than pleased. For some reason, Bulgaria as a squat toilet left a few Bulgarian art lovers cold... I would be surprised if Germans appreciated the swastika turned autobahn.

Cerny was paid £350,000 for the project.

Reported in several places, notably The Map Room and Boing Boing.

Emily Wicks: The Fifty United States and their Mottos

Emily Wick has posted her linocuts and paintings on her "Two Eyeballs Galleries", including the beautifully cartographic The Fifty States and Their Mottos,a composite of 50 individual linocuts:



From the artist's statement:

I began making linoleum prints in 2003 and began studying classical realism under master painter David Hardy in 2006. I like to carve lino blocks while I am relaxing. I enjoy painting so I can slow down and learn this ancient magical trade of optical illusions. Seeing Things Differently to see a new world is my purpose: both imagination AND reality are important ingredients.

In addition, Emily Wick is a filmmaker and blogs about food!

Posters, original linocuts, and T-Shirts are also available.

HT to Orange!

The Next Country

The Next Country is a new collection of poetry by Idra Novey.

From the publisher: "In these powerful lyric poems, Idra Novey’s exploration of “country” extends beyond national boundaries into the countries of marriage and family, history and the unspoken, leading to a bold and imaginative reckoning of the self with the larger world."

To help convey this sensibility, the publisher used a piece by Matthew Cusick as the cover art. Cusick recycles old maps into this work.

From a 2006 exhibit at the Lisa Dent Gallery in San Francisco:

Matthew Cusick's newest paintings are a series of Texas highways traversing allegorical landscapes. For his second exhibition at Lisa Dent Gallery, Cusick has refined his technique of painting with maps, using them as a surrogate for paint - their inherent visual qualities of tone, value, and density employed to render the spatial image of the highways.

More examples of his cartographic art at: GeoCarta and Creative Mapping.

HT to La Gringissima

Pier Gustafson

Pier Gustafson is a calligrapher, illustrator, graphic designer and artist. He specializes in customized invitations for weddings and other special events. Often, guests invited to these special events need a map to the location. If you look closely at the the invitation, you can often find a map incorporated into the design, or the map itself is the design. Two examples from Gustafson's map gallery:


Drawn tree branches made up the decorative motif of the invitation and the RSVP card as well as the envelopes. It seems that I needed to include them on the map, too. But rather than simply having them be decorative, I composed them into the actual roadways. (Though I think of myself as a realist, I did bend some botanical laws of nature with highways 12 and 37.)


The owner of a Victorian house planned a grand re-opening celebration after it had gone through extensive historic renovations. An elaborate claw-footed post holds a fringed be-tassled banner containing the text of the invitation. Only after you study it for a moment, do you realize that the post is actually the map directing his guests from Boston.

I recently discovered Pier's work after a return visit to The Hand Drawn Map Association.

America Deflated

Often I have highlighted a map that provides an "inflated view" of its subject. In other words, making it appear larger (and by inference, more important).

Artist Nina Katchadourian has taken an opposite approach. She has taken a standard AAA road map of the United States and "deflated" it, to only include the portions that are relevant to her life:

Coastal Merger:

I was born in California, moved to the east coast for college, went back to the west coast for graduate school, and now live on the east coast again. This map reflects my bicoastal experience of this country.

From a purely technical point of view, I am impressed with the way she carefully matched up coastlines and highways to create a seamless merger. I wish I could get a closer look.

Katchadourian's work can also be seen in this collection, Opener 11: Nina Katchadourian: All Forms of Attraction and in my favorite "maps as art" book, You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon.

Via Creative Mapping: "A blog dedicated to the creative use of maps in art or how to map information creatively. All in all we are dedicated to showing map art."

Russian Cake Art Maps

Who could have the heart to cut into, and eat, one of these cakes?

St. Petersburg:


India:


More Russian Cake Art at Damn Cool Pics.

Map Lamp

Chez Larsson offers a map lamp howto:



Benita is an artist and a visual merchandiser in Sweden. While it is not clear from this image, if you visit the howto page you will see that the map on the lamp is of Stockholm.

Via Craftzine, thanks to Ms. Cartophiliac.

World of Apples

This map of the world is one of many works of art made from thousands of apples at the Apple Festival in Kivik, Sweden.



Via Damn Cool Pics

Paris Map Gift Card

Yet another Live Journal blog in Russian or Ukrainian. As far I can determine, from my Bablefish translation, Konstantin had a co-worker getting married. What to give them? Just cash in an envelope? Not good enough.



The solution: a map of Paris is folded in such a way that it creates a card with a pocket for the cash.

Konstantin's blog title, roughly (babelfish) translated: "I see purpose, I believe in itself, I do not note obstacles!"

Any solution that involves a map is worthy of notice!

Kathryn Rodrigues

Kathryn Rodrigues, a Chicago based artist, says that maps are an enormous inspiration to her and her work.


Where Land Ends and Sea Begins #3, 2007. Mixed media.

By the time I was beginning high school, my family had moved ten times. This transient lifestyle left me with a deep interest in geography, memory and cultural identity. I see maps as being the intersection of these three subjects. They are able to reflect both home and abroad, the known and unknown, belonging and longing. It is precisely this ambiguity that continues to intrigue me. By referencing both visual and symbolic aspects of maps, I have recreated the process of investigating what and where I have come from, and the world around me today.

Germany. 2008. Photogram.


#230

Flounder Lee

Flounder Lee is an artist currently living in Indianapolis. He describes his work as dealing with "the intersections and interactions between things. The intersections between public and private, art and life, history and the present, among others, have always informed my work. I use mapping and indexing to recreate/reconstruct the space-time surrounding my life."

One of his current project is titled, Treaties:

"Treaties between Europeans and aboriginals were made and broken time and again. Many were never even recognized by the tribes that supposedly signed them. Even if they were never formally recognized, I plan on exploring the boundaries of these lands the treaties set out for my native ancestors by my European ancestors. After finding the historical reference maps and plotting the boundaries, with modern equipment such as a GPS, Google Earth, and a camera as my guide, I will go out and find these borders in the landscape and photograph both inside and outside the imaginary lines set down in these treaties."

Lee combines maps from the Library of Congress with his photographs:



72 (Indiana/Delaware, Potawatomi, Miami and Eel River Miami)


#216

Colombian Joe

Let a map of Colombia help you wake up this morning:


Colombia beautiful land by getuchito
For the Worth1000 Nationalism 7 contest.

More about coffee, and other exports from Colombia.


#215

Why Guys Won't Ask For Directions Part 2

Why Guys Won't Ask For Directions Part 1



From PostSecret.com, the repository of secrets on postcards.

Carto-Kudos to the first Carto-Commenter who can identify the city depicted on this postcard

Ding Ding Ding! Of course it is Bangkok. First place goes to Brian!


#202

Make Your Own Map Purse

Sonya Style is a do-it-yourself site of arts & crafts ideas, cooking, decorating and gardening, by Sonya Nimri.

Here she offers step-by-step instructions on how you can make your own map purse! Make one of the city are visiting and you won't need to carry an additional map.

I especially like the added touch of the toy car "latch".

Ohio on a Stick

Some of you may have noticed my recent experimentation with selling advertising space to Project Wonderful. It is an interesting model for buying an selling ads. That little ad box in the upper right portion of this page does not, I think, usually offend.If anything, the ads are often a little silly and irrelevant to the topic of this blog (online comics, fan fiction, t-shirts). I have so far made a grand total of $0.27!

Just imagine my suprise when, this morning, I looked at my blog and found an ad for "Original Map Paintings." The ad links to an online shop at Etsy, an online community where members can buy and sell "all things handmade".

The art featured in this shop is by Erik Maldre. He calls the two examples posted here Ohio on a Stick and Estonia on a Stick.

From the Artist's Statement:

The second reality is clearly defined by the title of each piece. "'Region' on a Stick No. 'X'" perpetuates beyond the representational notions of a map by suggesting that the represented region is a physical object unto itself. Ironically enough, the duality of representation comes full circle for the suggested physical object is still a representation of such due to its physically painted nature.

Erik, I love this stuff. If you had sent me a link, I would have plugged your site for free! (Like I'm doing now.) Although, as long as you maintain the Project Wonderful ad, your link will remain at the top of the front page...

Swarovski Globe

Milan Design Week 2008: Swarovski Crystal Palace



Via MocoLoco

ComplexCity

ComplexCity by Lee Jang Sub:



Artist's Statement:

This project is an exploration to find a concealed aesthetic by using the pattern formed by the roads of the city which have been growing and evolving randomly through time, thus composing the complex configuration we experience today.

I perceive the city's patterns as living creatures that I recompose to form an urban image.

This project which started from Seoul where I was born and have grown in, is expanding to other cities all over the world.

Via MocoLoco

Cows of the World, Unite!

In honor of May Day



Image created by John Rieger

Nothing to do with maps, but my favorite book about cows: Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Betsy Lewin.

When Farmer Brown refuses to comply with the their demands, the cows take action...




Thanks to Hunter for sending the cow map

North America Wired

Wire sculpture by Elizabeth Berrien

The artist, "often felt that the intricate, organic lines of our living planet and its features - continents, great river and mountain ranges would make a glorious translation into wire."

Indeed it does.


Via Her Majesty of Maps

Why Guys Won't Ask For Directions

From PostSecret.com, the repository of secrets on postcards.

Say Yes! to Italy

The other day, I wrote about Michigan, "the most anthropomorphic" state. If you know anyone from Michigan, you have probably experienced the phenomenon wherein the Michiganian points to a spot on his palm and says, "I was born here, in Pontiac," or "my family has a summer cottage here, in the thumb."

The most anthropomorphic nation is, of course, Italy. So, do Italians, when describing a location in their home country, point to their leg?



Made in Italy By ivanas
for the Worth1000.com "Nationalism 6" contest.

Additional clever photoshoped maps from Worth1000.com:

Brenda Jones at Rosewood

Thanks to Ms. Cartophiliac for dragging me out to the Rosewood Gallery in Kettering, Ohio, near Dayton. The current exhibit includes the fiber art work of Brenda Jones... with maps! Hurry if you want to see. It is only here until April 25.

From the Kettering-Oakwood Times:

Brenda Jones, of Cheney, KS, received her MA in painting and photography from the Wichita State University in Wichita, KS. She is currently teaching art at Wichita East High School and at Friends University in Wichita. Jones has received the Fullbright Award to teach and study in Argentina and the Japan Fullbright Memorial Fund to study the role of the kimono in Japan. The clothing articles are primarily aprons and jackets, which are reminiscent of women, remembered, imagined and known.

With each hand-sewn piece, she addresses women’s issues and feels more connected to her grandmother, who was an alterations lady for a major department store. The works are bigger than life sized and created mainly from paper, but include more unique materials such as tea bags, chopsticks, wax, seaweed, used coffee filters and used drier sheets.

... and maps!

I wrote to Brenda for more information, and she sent a photo of this piece, Willa's Milky Way, "Which is made almost entirely of maps... Nebraska/Colorado. It's really about Willa Cather (one of my favorite authors) and the traditional quilt block pattern "Milky Way"."



"Actually, I use maps in the work often to signify a geographic place where I was when those thoughts were going through my head. Also, I sometimes use them because they really give a place to the person I was thinking of. Or, sometimes it is simply because they symbolize some time of journey to me and most of the works do have something to do with a journey of some sort or another...whether it is mental or geographic."



Some samples of her work can be seen here on the Rosewood site, and additional work can be seen at her online gallery at ArtCloud.com.

Thank you, Brenda. Your work is a treat!

Apple and Potatoe Worlds

Kevin Van Aelst's color photographs "include every day foods and objects: bread, doughnuts, crackers, candy, floor tile, sweaters, and lint. These simple materials are arranged into shapes and patterns inspired by formulas found in science and mathematics, such as fractal geometry, chaos theory, biology and chemistry."

And geography!

Apple Globe, 2007, Digital C-Print




_________________________________________

Discovering that crunchy map reminded me to pull out and scan this advertisement I saved from a restaurant industry magazine back in the 1990's.

McCain Foods Limited, is the world's largest producer of frozen french fries.

Sadly, neither of these works of art can be found in any museum. Hopefully they ended up on someone's plate...

On the Road to...?

It has not been my intention to turn this blog into a "Maps as Art" blog... but it certainly feels like it, lately. There have been so many good ones that have come my way...

I have been reading You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, edited by Katharine Harmon. This book consists of dozens of excellent examples of "maps as art". Many of them have been featured here and on other map blogs (such as Strange Maps). Buy the book, or see a large portion of it on Google Books. I would love to reproduce all of the images here, but that is more than a bit out-of-bounds. So I'll leave you with this colorful and entertaining painting by Howard Finster:

Howard Finster, All Roads One Road Headed the Same Way, 1978

Baptist preacher and renowned folk artist Howard Finster (1916-2001) devoted his life to art and his art to God... [Finster's map] generously offers many routes to a paradise that is detailed in its delights.

Folks who are not familiar with outsider art may not recognize the name Howard Finster, but music fans might recognize the cover art he did for the Talking Heads album, Little Creatures, which ironicaly, included a song titled "Road To Nowhere" AND a globe!

_______________________
Ms. Cartophiliac was an Art History major in college and completed her senior thesis on outsider artists. Thus, I have been introduced to the chaotic delights of outsider art. Our favoritest museum in the whole world is the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, where many examples of this art genre can be found.

Ms. Cartophiliac is the proud owner of this small Howard Finster sculpture. Unfortunately, we have been obliged to keep it safely stowed away in a closet. Our feline roommates are way too fond of knocking things off of shelves for the fun of it.

Preserving the Map in the Tent of Tomorrow

The New York Times is reporting today about efforts to preserve a half-acre terrazzo road map of New York State from the 1964-65 World’s Fair. "The map is hidden from public view on the floor of the abandoned, roofless Tent of Tomorrow in the New York State Pavilion, at what is now Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. The 130-by-166-foot map has cracked and crumbled badly."

From the Tent of Tomorrow website:

The Tent of Tomorrow was the world's largest roadmap. Sponsored by Texaco, this giant facsimile of the Rand McNally map of New York state was composed of large squares of polished Terrazzo. The Map was one of the most popular features of the World's Fair, especially among residents of New York, who"walked the map" looking for their home town. For the 1965 season, many more towns were added to the map at the request of fairgoers who noticed their town missing during the 1964 season.

Here'a photo of how it looked when it was fresh and new:



Here is one of the tiles today still in fairly good condition:



The Queens Museum of Art currently has a exhibit in conjunction with the pilot conservation program. The site includes an interactive locator map.

Heavy Metal USA

This weighty piece of geographic art is on display in the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University:



Artist: Ian Brennan

Via Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog. Thanks again, Jerad

Bubblegum World

More map art. A bubblegum world... Better or worse than an Absolut World?

Bubblegumization, by Mike Estabrook. "Bubblegum and Wrappers on Canvas 2003. 60 X 84 in. This is a world map made entirely out of bubblegum and their wrappers. It is a pun on the globalizing of consumerist culture."

More of his work can bee seen at ArtCodex and re-title.com.

Map Impact

I am already a big fan of Worth 1000, an image manipulation contest site. It is always fun to browse their galleries and see what these PhotoShop wizards will create next. Of course, this image is my current favorite:



This entry, Map Impact, by "doehlman" was entered in the Liquid Assets 8 contest: "For this contest, you should swap any liquid with another object."

Creator Comments: A strawberry hits the big apple

Take Manhattan

For your entertainment, two views of New York City:

Places & Spaces presents "New York - Global Island" by Danielle Hartman. "This image of Manhattan presents New York literally as a global island. Country shapes are arranged into the form of Manhattan. The circular title reintroduces the shape of the globe. This map is inspired by the international diversity if New York’s residents." Based on 2000 Census Data.

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From Appealing Industries, an animated GIF starts with a blank subway map and draws each line in the sequence in which it was built.





Via the Manhattan Users Guide.

Elisabeth Lecourt Map-Wear

In one of my very earliest Cartophilia posts, I commented on maps as art, by highlighting the clothing-art work of paper sculpture artist Jennifer Collier. Yet another maps-clothing-artist comes to my attention:



Elizabeth Lecourt uses maps to sculpt clothing. In the October 5, 2005 issue of Step Inside Design Magazine, Mary Fitcher said:

... Technically she's not a fashion designer, however, Elisabeth Lecourt (a French student of art in England) is turning heads with her intriguing line of map-wear. She folds and cuts individual maps by region to produce clothes not to be worn but rather hung. To date she has pressed and ironed 60 pieces of faux garments, mostly pleated parochial dresses and button-down shirts made out of modern maps. Universal by nature, her work is popular wherever shown...

Thanks to Ms. Cartophiliac for pointing me in the direction of this cartographic artist.

Be My Cartographic Valentine

Happy Cartographic Valentine's Day...


From PostSecret, an ongoing community art project where people mail
in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard.


From mediatinker, an artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, web guru, general know-it-all, or empress of everything.


From The European Heart, a sculpture project by Anton Krajnc.


From Ernest Dudley Chase, A Pictorial Map of Loveland (1943), as seen in You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon


From Art By the Yard, devoted to paper, fiber and book arts, the materials that comprise them and the artists who pursue them!


From Find Croatia, a web site dedicated to travellers and visitors to Croatia.

Ohio Quilt

One of my local boardgaming groups meets several times per month at Sew-In-Style, a Sewing School for adults and kids. They have a nice room in the back with big tables. I cannot help but appreciate one of the room's decorative quilt wall hangings.

Artist: Cheryl Richards

Mapping the Imagination - Exhibit

Mapping the Imagination, an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum
3 October 2007 - 27 April 2008

Maps are simplified schematic diagrams that employ a universal visual language through which we codify and comprehend our world. We all use maps in our daily lives as sources of information about places, routes, networks and boundaries. They offer us the means of describing and understanding the intangible too - everything from air routes and constellations to states of mind.

Although mapping is a method of gathering, ordering and recording knowledge, all maps are to some extent the products of imagination. No map is ever the truly objective description of a place that it purports to be. Every map is shaped - and coloured - by political, cultural and social conditions, and by the personal experience or imaginative projections of its maker.

This display includes maps made to inform or to entertain, maps enhanced by imaginative embellishments, maps that show imaginary places, and works in which artists have adapted map iconography to express their ideas and experiences of place.

Bloggers Read Blogs

I checked my stats and found that several more blogs have linked to, or commented about Cartophilia.com. As always, thanks for the plug. And now to return the favor:

I been getting lots of visitors recently from Gadling.com Not a "map blog" but a blog about travel (and travelers, must by necessity, appreciate maps!). However, we also have something else in common. One of the blog writers is named "Jamie" and s/he loves The Amazing Race as much as I do!

Contours is the Official Blog of National Geographic Maps, publishers of reference maps, outdoor recreation maps and mapping software, and professional mapping applications.

Recently they took a look at Our Dumb World: The Onion's Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition, and they say the entry on Afghanistan made them cry. Can't say I blame them (but it is still funny, in a macabre way...).

Postcards from Bloggerville is published by a psychologist and writer who has a poetic apreciation of maps.

WHAT IS THE CENTER AND LAYOUT OF YOUR MENTAL GPS SYSTEM?

Do you carry an inner map of the world? Of your life? Of your body?

How do you or don't you use maps in your life?

What is your map of your yourself?

He She writes about many kinds of maps, of places... or persons...

Phillipe Boukobza takes a different tack with his Visual Mapping. He is interested in how ideas are mapped.

A mindmap sketch from John Clapp.

Paula Scher: The Maps

As I have commented several times, maps are more than "a how to get there guide". Maps as an element of design can be used to evoke an emotional response. When artists use maps as a theme in their work, I always want to take a closer look.

The Maya Stendhal Gallery in New York frequently features the work of Paula Scher.

"Renowned graphic designer Paula Scher [creates] intricate, colorful and obsessively detailed maps of different regions of the world."

World 1998
77" x 56.5"
Acrylic on canvas

Maps not only decorate but send subtle or subliminal messages

Today I finished re-reading How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier. In his epilogue, he summed up, in part, what this blog is all about:

Let me conclude with a cautionary note about the increased likelihood of cartographic distortion when a map must play the dual role of both informing and impressing its audience. Savvy map viewers must recognize that not all maps are intended solely to inform the viewer about location or geographic relationships. As visual stimuli, maps can look pretty, intriguing, or important. As graphic fashion statements, maps not only decorate but send subtle or subliminal messages about their authors, sponsors, or publishers.

Maps as Art

Jennifer Collier, of Stafford, England, creates "innovative textiles and craft pieces using natural and found materials". Naturally, I am partial to her use of maps in creating sculptures of shoes and dresses: