Another post! Another show!

Two posts in two days! Wow! I can barely keep up with myself......

But I digress. A week ago I was at an opening in a beautiful new art center near me here in Northern Michigan, and I was approached by the members of its gallery committee. They invited me to do a show there! The details are very pre-liminary at this point, but, once again, I will keep you posted. What we know is that it will be quite a large section of the Map, will be sometime after November, 2013, and will involve local students. Very exciting!

PS. The image above is the panel I am working on today. I found the watercolor-y feel of it to be very appealing and decided, for lack of anything better, to head this post with it.

ArtPrize 2013!

It looks as though I will be participating in ArtPrize once again this Fall. I exhibited a large chunk of the Map four years ago in this international competition and had a fantastic time. I'll give you more details once I have a firm agreement with a venue.

For those of you who are not familiar with this event, it is a huge (1500 artists and 150+ venues) art competition held each September since 2009 in downtown Grand Rapids. The project was the brainchild of Rick De Vos who also donated the $500,000 prize pot. This year the pot, most of which is handed out based on public voting, will be $560,000. That makes ArtPrize the largest in the world.

For more info, hit the link at the right. See you there!

A fresh invitation

Since I haven't received any guest artist contributions in a long time I'm going to issue a new invitation to you artists out there. The panel above, now being integrated into the Map, was sent by our friend, Nancy Allen, several years ago.

Here's how it works: you contact me through this site, and I tell you where to send your 2-D, 8 by 10 inch piece. I can return the original if you want or incorporate it directly into the Map. You give me permission to copy your piece as material for collage and to sprinkle bits throughout the rest of the Map. You also understand that I will be collaging over your work to integrate it with its neighboring panels.

So, get in touch! I'll be waiting. Thanks!

Our neighbors' map installation

Our neighbors in Cold Spring, John and Jen, bought 15 Map panels from me a couple of years ago and mounted them in their dining area. To protect the prints from spatters or dust they put them behind a single large plexiglas sheet. I think they look great!

If you want to do something similar, let me know. I'll be happy to quote you a price for making custom prints like these. Or, take a look at what's being offered right now on Ebay. Some prints are as low as $4, and most are currently $10 or under.

Number hungry? Here are some garden-fresh stats!

The population of the Map as of the latest census (1053) was 16,304,885. There were 27 parishes and 416 cities.

The largest cities were:
     1. Ukrainia                  2,414,234
     2. Geo                        1,663,163
     3. Sabratha                1,033,782
     4. Wybourne                 990,212
     5. Leyemouth                800,363
     6. Southchurch             730,140
     7. Jackson                    586,034
     8. Nelleville                   585,795
     9. Fields West              454,782
    10. Plaeides                  423,152

As of the last inventory (2/17/13) the Map was composed of 2738 panels covering 1521 square feet. 1720 First Generation panels have been archived. The maximum East-West dimension is 44 feet, and the maximum North-South is 49.4 feet.

What else would you like to know?

A new show!

I have just been invited to show a large section of the Map at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Brattleboro, Vermont from November 1, 2013 to March 4, 2014! I hope that some of you will be able to come. So, mark your calendars!

I expect to show about 800 of the central panels (including the one above) in a gallery space that will accommodate the entire width of the Map wrapped around four walls. This will be the first time that a section has enveloped a whole room. I think that the installation will be very effective.

If any of you know of other venues for shows please let me know. I'd love to be able to exhibit out West in this 50th anniversary year of the start of the Map. Thanks!

A note on Map dating

Some of you have noticed that those tiny numbers on the Map panels do not represent altitudes but rather indicate the date when that part of the panel was painted or collaged. Those Map dates correspond to "our" years, and I keep a list of equivalent dates. Currently there are about 85 Map years to each of our calendar years.

In the early years of my Map-making the years were determined by the rate of increase in the Map population. A one percent increase in population was equal to one Map year. You may see some tiny hand-written dates on the early panels.

In recent times that system became too tedious to maintain. Also, because I can now print sheets of clear labels with computer generated numbers the number of date labels per Map year has become arbitrary. We are currently in Map year 1050.