Technology and me

This is my idea of modern. I refer to it as "clamshell chic." It's basically all the technology I care to have on my body. I do old-fashioned phone calls and receive texts and answer them with as few letters as one or as many as three. I get internet information from my laptop. I get directions from large pieces of printed paper called "maps." I play word games on my wife's i-Phone. Oops! She tells me that I need my own, but I resist. I need to go technology-free for big chunks of my day. That's why I garden. I love that those tiny seeds contain all the instructions for making a long vine which produces giant orange fruit which get carved into spooky candle-bearing jack-o-lanterns. Way more efficient than the silicon guts of cell phones.

SoHo Artist

In the early 1980s I was living in a loft in New York's SoHo. The building I was in was zoned AIR, Artist in Residence. In order to occupy the space I had to qualify, in the eyes of the NYC Office of Cultural Affairs (or some such name), as an artist. I laid the Map out on the floor, climbed a step ladder, and took pictures. I submitted the slides to the certification folks, and they balked a little since I said that I had never exhibited. But they came down for a site visit and decided that, yes, I was an artist. It was shortly after these photos were taken that the Map was put away for a twenty-year rest.

Bored?

People often ask me if I get bored working on my Map since I work on it every day that I am at the farm. The simple answer is, "No." And the image above is a principal reason. I never know what is going to develop on the page in front of me. Today N14/E26 came up in the draw, and the card that lead me to it also read "wave paint." That meant that around the already existing beige "banana" I was going to add a band of darker beige (the next color on my palette) in a wave pattern. I then dated the new paint (1169 in Map years) and added the orange dotted lozenge. I had to tape this panel to the one below it in order to accomplish that. While I was at it and contrary to all my own rules I added the faint blue rectangle in colored pencil. That was a whim, but I liked it enough to consider doing that sort of thing to future panels. 

When I was done I had a composition which pleased me a lot. I know that most of you who follow my work are most intrigued with the "mappiest" panels, the ones which most resemble maps that we all know, but I hope that you will also come to appreciate some of the compositions that the deck of cards dictates in its own random way.

Not boring at all!  

Map Factory Update

Here are some shots taken today of the current state of the 'Map Factory', with Tyler and me working on preparations for the upcoming shows. We are hunkered down indoors as some of the first snowfall of the season hits Northern Michigan.

About custom prints....

For those of you who would like to assemble a group of Map panels I offer to make custom prints of individual sheets at $30 apiece. Actually these are not prints but rather are direct inkjet photocopies of the working set which we keep in the studio. Each time a Map panel is randomly chosen for reworking it is photocopied. I archive the original and apply the new work to the copy. This means that adjacent panels may not be of the same "generation" and may not, therefore, match each other in tone or quality. As a matter of fact, anomalies in the printing process (see the images above) are incorporated into the overall Map execution as acts (or accidents) of nature and are welcomed in my creative process.

Video: A Guest Artist

Jerry interviews Map guest artist Faelan Blair

Paris! Frankfort! Catskill!

Last week was a banner one for Jerry's Map. On Wednesday I received an invitation from the Palais de Tokyo to exhibit  there in early 2015. Their intention is to show the entire Map opening February 12 for a two-month run. See you there!

Then on Friday the Map was featured on artistaday.com. Take a look!

The opening of the show in the Frankfort, Michigan Oliver Art Center is on February 27. I will be rushing back from Paris to help paper the two-story West wall there with the Map. If you can't make Paris this is your chance!

The show in the Hudson Valley is taking shape, too, and is scheduled to open May 1. I'll give you more details as they become available.

See you all soon!