Uppercase Indeed!

Issue 12 of Uppercase is out! And it has a six-page spread on the Map. Hooray and thanks to Gail Anderson who wrote the piece. And many thanks, too, to Greg Whitmore who contributed the big lead photo and to Janine Vangool for putting it into print. The magazine is a treasure to all us graphics and creative types.

I'll make a link the magazine site so that you all can find a vendor near you or order a copy directly from Calgary (of all places!).

N1E1 updated

Here's the latest N1E1 segment. Not too exciting, I know, but time will reveal all!

More exciting: I received Issue 12 of Uppercase magazine in the mail today, and Gail Anderson's article about me and the Map looks great! I will post a link shortly telling you where to find this beautiful publication.

And S1/W1 gets an update...,.

Thanks, Ann, for the latest purchase of S1/W1 real estate! This segment is coming along.

I am setting up a shopify store for the Map, but I have a lot to learn. Son, Henry, was here on the weekend to give me some help, and friend Gail is working on a logo for Jerry's Map. Cool! I'll let you know when the shop is really up and running.

I have finished a side project, the copying of 48 panels to go on the wall at the show this fall. They will be an earlier generation of  panels which will be exhibited on the floor.

With that work done I was able to resume the regular progress of the Map. I have finished working through the rows to the bottom and have started over at the top. I find that it is taking me almost exactly one year to complete a cycle. Of course, as the Map expands it will take longer.

Onward!

S1E1 comes online....

Here it is, folks, in all its sparse glory: the first iteration of the S1E1 segment. It shows the six panels which you have bought to date. Thanks go to Deb and Cory and Sue! They are the most recent Map collectors.

I was reflecting this morning how slowly this process goes. Over the holidays I was watching my cousin play Minecraft. He was doing it with what, to my 69-year old eyes, was dizzying speed. Rock was being mined and turned into tools in nanoseconds. Trees produced wood; gravel collapsed in the mine, zombies appeared and were zapped. Kersplooie! Fast, faster.....his left fingers slapping keys; his right hand deftly working the mouse.

Jerry's Map is more like Slow Food. Or slow anything. It takes lots of time. Things acrete over years, not seconds. In 2003 I decided that my colors were too bright and set out to subdue them. I started remixing them, one jar at a time, a few drops a day. Nine years later they are toned down a bit.

Sometimes I wish that you all would buy up panels more quickly so that the segments like the one above would fill in faster. But that, too, is part of the Slow Map process. Don't let me stop you from purchasing though! I appreciate every sale!

Happy New Year!

2011 was a great year for me and my Map. We were invited to exhibit my work at two great contemporary art museums. One is in the Northeast and scheduled for late October/early November 2012. The other, in the Southeast, will show a large chunk of Jerry's Map in May, 2013. What a way to kick off the Map's 50th anniversary year! The Northeast show will be the first time the entire Map has been assembled since 1982 when it was composed of only about 500 panels. It's now just over 2400. I'll give firm dates and locations when I know them.

I will also be on the lookout for other institutions that would like to show the Map during 2013. If you know of any or have contact with any, please let me know! Thanks!

A couple of new Map features are in my head and will make their way onto paper in 2012: one, which I will call "Crop Circle Collage" in deference to Joanne who just asked me about it, has me excited. The other, still a vague concept, I will call "The Red Dimension". I'll experiment a little and then launch it sometime soon.

I hope that all your new years have started off in the right direction. Stay tuned! (And run over to Ebay and buy yourself a few prints!)