Personal Geographies | A blog for Arty Cartophiles

February 21, 2012

Journal Maps and a Giveaway

I use maps in my journals because I love the way they look, and the way it helps establish where I was when I was journaling that page. Here is a page from an Italian journal, with a bit of a map of Orvieto, a hill town where I taught last year, and will teach again in 2013. I am teaching class in Virginia Beach in a few weeks about journal mapping, we will do some astrological maps, table maps, memory maps and whatever else I drum up between now and then. Here is the link for that. Journal Mapping In Virginia Beach.

Many writers are also map lovers, and use maps in their studies for their books, often in their journals just like me. Robert Louis Stevenson was such a man. You can find many more writers like him in a book that I adore, called Maps of the Imagination, the Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi. Here is what Mr. Stevenson has to say.

But it is my contention – my superstition, if you like – that who is faithful to his map, and consults it, and draws from it his inspiration, daily and hourly, gains positive support, and not mere negative immunity from accident. The tale has a root there; it grows in that soil; it has a spine of its own behind the words. Better if the country be real, and he has walked every foot of it and knows every milestone. But even with imaginary places, he will do well in the beginning to provide a map; as he studies it, relations will appear that he had not thought upon; he will discover obvious, though unsuspected, short-cuts and footprints for his messengers; and even when a map is not all the plot, as it was in Treasure Island, it will be found to be a mine of suggestion. Robert Louis Stevenson, The Art of Writing

Do you use maps in your journals? Put a comment here and tell me about it.

I will draw a name on March 1. The winner will get a packet of maps and goodies from me. Some will be my maps, some will be other kinds of map related goodies.

Here are the rules.

1. Post here and have a link on your blog to the post.
2. If you have no email or blog, it won’t work for this one.
3. Post a photo of your journal map on the flickr group of your journal map and you get one extra credit!

I will mail overseas for this one.

Also check out my Facebook Group, Arty Cartophiles.

Looking forward to seeing all your maps!

4 Comments

Filed under Arty Cartophiles, Giveaways, Inspirations for Maps

February 19, 2012

The Google Map of the 19th Century – The Atlantic

The Google Map of the 19th Century – The Atlantic.

This is an article on hand maps, and the one on the lower left is in my book. More fodder for arty cartophiles!

Mary Nasser, Guest Cartophile

I am very pleased to present Mary Nasser to all of you, she is my guest Arty Cartophile for today. We connected over our mutual love of maps, textures, and layers. I asked her to answer some questions about her approach to her art.

You are what I would call an arty cartophile, or an artist who loves and incorporates maps in your work. At what point in your career did maps become your focus, and why?

I actually remember the exact point in my career when maps became my focus! It was during my artist residency at Wildacres in 2006. I had wanted to work in collage, but had been painting and exhibiting representational landscape oil paintings and watercolor paintings since 2000. Being in that remote cabin for a week gave me to the courage to move in this new direction – to collage with all the maps and triptiks I had collected for my 900-mile drive. I didn’t have GPS, and still don’t!

Is your intrigue with maps more because of the way they look, or the information they impart?

Both! I’m intrigued that maps are tangible, portable guides to places and that they impart information much like a painting: that is that they translate what is three-dimensional into two dimensions. I also love the way maps look: their lines, rhythm, movement, patterns. The colors and shapes of geologic maps are especially fun and fabulous!

Your background includes the study of geology, painting, collage and sculpture. How do you think these interests are connected? If you were asked to add another area of science or art to your repertoire, what would it be?

The thread that runs through my interests in geology, painting, collage and sculpture is layers. I am fascinated with layers, and evidence of process, both additive and subtractive – in art and in the earth. If I were asked to add another area of science or art to my repertoire, I would take on two: scientific illustration and cartography!

When creating your art, are you thinking of the piece as an actual place, or do you work by how it makes you feel?

Again, I think it’s both, perhaps more the actual place though and the landscapes, geology and stories of that place. But the process of art definitely grounds me; working on a piece absorbs me and my attention. It is great fun adding thick textures and colorful layers, then wiping, scratching, and scraping to reveal underlying sections.

The cycles of time are thematic in your work. What time period interests you most?

The time period that interests me most is deep time. American writer John McPhee coined this phrase deep time in his book Basin and Range in 1981 to describe the immensity of all history, the antiquity of the earth: stories figuratively told by the layers of rock laid down over many years. I am interested in the layers of landscapes and the stories these layers tell.

You have had the opportunity to participate in artist residency programs in various parts of the country. Which experience would you like to repeat? Did you use maps in the work you created there?

I would love, love, love to repeat my residency at Red Cinder Creativity Center! Red Cinder is located between 2 volcanoes – Kilauea and Mauna Loa, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Immersed in twelve of the world’s thirteen climate zones, I experienced and studied the various landscapes and dynamic geology of the island. I had the unique opportunities of watching landscape being created and standing on the newest land on earth – land not even depicted yet on maps or GPS! All of my work created from this experience use maps: topographic, geological, and even vintage!

More about Mary, and how to find her.

Mary C. Nasser earned her Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art: Painting from Michigan State University. During her graduate studies, Mary also studied Medieval Art History abroad in London, England, and attended a monotype workshop in Mexico City. In 1996 she was a visiting artist and guest lecturer in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she lectured at Academia de Arte Vizuale “IOAN ANDREESCU” (Academy of Visual Arts) and exhibited her work in "Deschideti U.S.A." (Open the Door) at the Casa Matei.

Mary has had more than 20 solo shows in the past 10 years and has been awarded numerous residency opportunities. She was Artist-in-Residence in 2007 at Prairie Center of the Arts in Illinois, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, and Rockmirth in New Mexico. Her latest residency was at Red Cinder Creativity Center in Hawaii, where Mary lived near active volcanoes that continually recreate the landscape.

Mary C. Nasser
Program Chairperson, Women's Caucus for Art - St. Louis
www.wca-stl.orgWebsite: www.marycnasser.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/marycnasser
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MaryNasserArt
Blog: http://www.marycnasser.com/blog.html
Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/marycnasser
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marycnasser
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/marycnasser/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46098321@N07/

6 Comments

Filed under Arty Cartophiles, Guest Mapper

January 27, 2012

Webinar and a Call to Share

Last week I did a webinar called My Journey with Maps. It was the story of how I got to be so map crazy.

Here is the link if you missed it. It was fun to do, and hundreds of you listened in, actually about 800 and counting!

Through that presentation I was invited to publish an article on the maps I am doing now, the scenes from the sky. I can’t post any of them yet, but here is a view that inspired me. I know there are lots of you out there inspired by these views, and I would love to get some samples of your work, so please, comment and post a link to your own bird’s eye view inspired art.

2 Comments

Filed under Inspirations for Maps, The Beauty of the Land

January 20, 2012

Deconstructing the Landscape

I just got back from teaching for Paperworks, a group that is not only large, varied in talent and scope, but also the finest group to teach for out there. They were kind, funny and energetic.

It started out with a presentation I did, called “My Journey with Maps” with was attended by over a hundred people. This talk was based on my webinar, which was live yesterday and will be accessible from here in a few days.

The class I taught was called the “Deconstructed Landscape Treasure Book”. First we painted an abstract landscape based on the work of Wayne Thiebaud and Hundterwasser. Check out Thiebaud.