Here's a copy of the letter I have been sending to purchasers of Map panels:
Notes on Jerry's Map: September 6, 2022
Thanks very much for buying this panel of Jerry's Map! I depend on these sales to be small
reaffirmations of the creative path I have been on all my adult life.
Much of what you receive when you buy an “original” is the inkjet copy of the previous iteration
of that panel with varying amounts of fresh work- either in paint or collage- superimposed on the
copy. I have always attempted to print in archival ink, but I have noticed that old panels are
sometimes faded. So, please try to be protective when displaying panels to ultraviolet light.
I consider that the sale of a panel constitutes the final phase in the creation of the art. The
process is not complete until the work has found a safe home somewhere in the world. Until
then it is just another sheet of paper sitting in a stack in my studio.
Every new purchaser gets a town named after him/her. If you'd rather not have your family
name inscribed on the Map or would rather I used another name please let me know. And, if you
don't live in the U.S., please send me your address so that I can notify you when your name has
been used. Stone is currently number two on the wait-list of names.
It's my dream that one day, probably long after I am dead, that these panels will get
reassembled to create a giant Map in some museum or other large public venue. I told one
museum director of this fantasy, and he told me that it would never happen, that museums
already had too difficult a time borrowing each other's works. But....who knows? Maybe a new
age of co-operation and goodwill will prevail, and there will be a great coming together!
You can help preserve my work by buying more Map items and by encouraging your friends to
collect them, too. All proceeds from the sale of these things go back directly into the project and
will help pay for supplies and for the valuable work of my part-time assistant, Bret, who scans,
copies, and archives the work.
A large section of the Map ( 1327 panels or 34% of the total) is being shown at DOX, the
contemporary art museum in Prague. The show opened June 4 and will run until November.
Another, even larger, exhibit is planned for the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City for the
summer of 2023.
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