Remember these?

About fifteen years ago I started making these little one-quarter scale "tiles" of Map panels. Each one was two inches wide and two-and-a-half inches high. Over the years I made over 9000 of them! I placed them on ledges in cities where I was having a show. Or I placed them around the town where I lived. A few people found them and collected them. I sold sets of them on eBay. I gave them to friends and new acquaintances.

Now I am about to put them back into circulation. And I am going to make a game of them. Here's how it will work: anyone finding two contiguous tiles will win a gift of an original Jerry's Map panel! Yay! I will give tiles away with all online purchases of Map items. I will hide tiles and tell you where to look for them. I will sell them. And I will send a couple, for free, to anyone who sends me an old-fashioned self addressed stamped envelope.

How does that sound? I'm looking to launch this game before the new year.

Good luck!

Jerry's museum donations

For the past four or five years, since I started advancing into my seventies, I have been searching for safe homes for my monster art project. Never one to play by the prevailing rules, I started by sending groups of twenty contiguous panels (like the ones pictured above) to randomly selected museums throughout the world. The results were, at best,
spotty. The majority of the institutions didn't even acknowledge receipt of the gift.  A couple sent rejection letters but never returned the panels. A noble few of them returned the panels with a nice letter. One accepted the panels outright and thanked me.

I had much better results with the museums with whom I had a prior relationship. Nine of them have now added my work to their permanent collections. I am grateful to them for providing a home for project!

My latest approach is to mail out groups of panels to museum directors along with a cover letter which tells them that the work is a personal gift to them and that they are free to dispose of it as they see fit or to return it to me. I ask only that they tell me what they have decided to do with the gift. We'll see.......

In the meantime I continue to offer panels, copies, postcards, and "instruction cards" on both Etsy and eBay. The sales from that helps defray the cost of materials and the aid of a part-time assistant. Many thanks to those who have helped!

Two new shows coming up

There are two new Jerry's Map shows coming up soon.

The first to open will be at Intuit in Chicago. The opening is scheduled for August 15, and the show, to include more than 1000 panels of the Map, will be up until January, 2020. See 
art.org for details.

Two weeks later a show of similar size will open at the York College Galleries in York, Pennsylvania. It will be listed soon at yorkcollegegalleries.com.

C'mon down and say, "Hi!"

Hey! Wanna trade?

 If you make art and would like to trade an original piece of your work for an original panel of Jerry's Map please email me! I have always encouraged guest artist to contribute to my project, and now I am offering my work for yours. The only requirements are that your piece be two-dimensional and roughly 8 by 10 inches. By trading you will also authorize me to reproduce your work as a panel of Jerry's Map. Sound good? Thanks!

Spring updates

There are two shows opening at the end of the summer: the first is at Intuit in Chicago opening about August 22, and the second will be at York College of Pennsylvania and will open August 29. Both shows will feature a wide East-West swath of the Map comprising about 500 panels.

The Map book continues to make progress, but there is no publication date set yet. Funding is in place to take the project up to publication. 

A time-lapse video of the Map showing its growth and change over the last twenty years is in preliminary planning. Once a budget is established we will seek funding.

In the meantime you can help by buying Map prints, instruction cards, and postcards on Etsy. Take a look! Thanks!

Gallery talk in Grand Rapids

Reminder: I am giving a gallery talk at the Grand Rapids Art Museum at 6PM on Thursday, April 11. If you are anywhere nearby I hope that you will come and introduce yourself!

In the meantime take another look at the Jerry's Map listings in Etsy. There will be new postings today. All proceeds go back directly into the production of the Map. We appreciate your support!

Progress report

The "pixelization" of the Map is making progress and is, by my estimate, about 15% done. It should be complete in another, say, ten years. By then, though, I will have gotten bored with the process and gone on to something else.

I've been changing the instructions on many cards, getting rid of the "Copy" instruction which creates new generations and substituting "Scan" demands. That will allow panels to accumulate more fresh work before they are retired. And, by scanning more, we will be making more images available for the planned time-lapse video of the growth of the Map.

I estimate that we now have about 30,000 scans on file. If each one was to be a frame in a video and if they were projected at 30 frames a second the video would be almost 17 minutes long. I am aiming to do 20 minutes. 

Now we need to come up with a  budget for such a project and then find someone to execute it. Ideas?

Some questions

Have you been to Etsy lately and seen the Jerry's Map offerings? There are postcards at $2, instruction cards at $17, and Map prints at $23. Remember: all the proceeds go back directly into the production of the Map. And maybe some day we will have enough to produce an animation of the growth of the Map!

What museums (or other public institutions like libraries or schools) would like to receive a free 20-panel chunk of Jerry's Map? Retired original panels need a few good homes. We put the names of potential recipients in a hat and draw them at random.

Who'd like to hear a talk by the artist? I will be at the Grand Rapids Art Museum on April 11 to talk about my project and the process used to produce it. Check their website for details:
artmuseumgr.org

How did I miss the PBS coverage of "All Over the Map" and the reference to Jerry's Map? Here's the link: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/why-we-still-need-paper-maps

Monday, January 28, 2018: S21/E14 (Gen V)

Another new Void, V.120.

And I am back on Twitter with the daily panel posting. A Tweeter told me that I could revert to the old format, and I have done that.

Sunday, January 27, 2018: S21/W3 (Gen VI)

The giant Void, V.89, is growing again!

Saturday, January 26, 2018: S21/W27 (Gen V)

Friday, January 25, 2018: S20/E9 (Gen IV)

This is the first time this panel has been altered since 2016. 

Rant: I will be doing a daily Map panel post here until either Twitter reverts to its old format or I get used to the new one. Trying to use the new format was, for me, like asking me to drive on the left side of the road or write with my left hand. Why do software engineers do this? Bah! 

Thursday, January 24, 2018: S20/W3 (Gen V)

The rapidly growing V.89 has overtaken two cities: Mouthbarzing and St. Thobo.

Jerry at GRAM

Last year I donated 20 panels of my Map to the Grand Rapids Art Museum. This year they are included in a show of recent acquisitions. The show opens January 26. I will be giving an artist talk at the Museum on April 11.

I hope to see you there!