Every day that I am in the studio I post a Map section (16 contiguous panels) on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and, when it lets me, Pinterest. I hope that you will follow me!
Here's a link to the French version of my interview with David Caillon of Arte:
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/105628-041-A/gymnastique/
Remember those cute little Map Tiles? Or maybe you never saw any. Anyway, I am going to start sending out blank grids with every order. The grid shows where each 2 by 2.5 inch tile goes to constitute part of that Section of the Map. I'll start with Section H.VIII which, despite its name, is at the very center of the Map. I'll probably add a new section every month or so.
The Prague show ended last weekend, the same weekend I turned 80, Milestones! The Traverse City show, I just learned today, will open in June, 2023. Save the month!
Spencer, my videographer neighbor, has agreed to shoot short videos of me as I work on the Map. I'll explain what I am doing, and we will post these on the internet. That, I think, is the simplest way of explaining some of the principles, rules, and instructions that govern the Map. I hope that you'll watch!
Thanks!
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.
Follow us, too, on Twitter and Instagram!
That's Ladja up on the scaffold. He's installing the first few rows of the 1327 panels which went from floor to ceiling when the show at DOX opened last Friday. I'm at the table, peeling the backs off the mounting tabs, and Meg, out of the picture, applies the tabs to the panels and stacks them, in order, in preparation for Ladja.
DOX (dox.cz) is the fabulous contemporary art center in Prague. It's Director, Leos Valka, and Curator, Terezie Zemankova, were our warm, gracious hosts and made our stay in Prague seem like a family affair. We thank them!
The show, Power(less), will be open until November 6 and features the work of over 30 artists from several countries.
I just bought my tickets to Prague! I have been invited to show at DOX, the contemporary art museum there. The show opens on June 4 and will run until November.
My installation will be on a high wall similar to the one shown above (UICA, Grand Rapids, 2016).
The following is a a first attempt to answer the questions of a redditor. They are coming faster than I am able to answer them, and I am going to propose that he call me and that I answer the questions by phone. I'll try to figure out a way- maybe video?- to present them here and on reddit.
Jerry, I've been trying to synthesize your process from posts, videos, interviews, etc, from over the last 12 or so years, but some questions remain. I'm posting them here per your suggestion to make them available for a wider audience. So I guess I'll just jump in...
New panels are each given a "center" around which the artistic operations are executed. How is the location of the center determined?
Many panels, but not all, have heavy dashed (often circular) lines around the center. And maybe around other points. And sometimes in expanding(?) concentric patterns. Sometimes these lines or fields overlap. I've seen you say that they don't really represent a physical in-world element and that they're a graphic element to the art. Basically, I'd like you to unpack how these forms work. When do they appear and when don't they? When are there multiples? When do they overlap? When are they true circles vs. "beans" or other less regular forms? If they're something your cards refer to, what are they called?
The dashed lines were originally just design elements. But then, in response to questions from redditors, I added to the reanimated human fantsay by saying that the dashes represnted invisble fences limiting newly arrived reanimants to the immadiate area around that town.
Do the first appearances of the void have the word "incursion" printed on them or is that something else?
That was the original term for The Void.
The newest element in the execution of the Map is the tilting of the axes on which the collage work is based. A good example is shown in this image. The village of Kateville has been tipped slightly to the right or clockwise in response to a black card. (Red cards instruct me to tilt the axis to the left.)
I've had word of a possible European show this summer. The details aren't firm yet, but I will post them here as soon as they have been established. I'm thrilled to have the potential of another show after the long pandemic drought.
I continue to sell on eBay and Etsy and invite you to take a look at the listings. There are currently over 100 on the two sites combined. As I say in the text for the listings, I see their sale and placement to be the final step in the creative process. Actually, in my fondest dreams, there may be an even further step: the re-combining of the original panels in a huge exhibit some time long after my demise. Who knows?
Thanks for your interest and continuing support!
You probably know by now that Jerry's Map was born in a front office of the Hoover Ball Bearing Company on South State Road in Ann Arbor in August, 1963. By the time I put it away in 1983, never thinking that I would take it up again, it had grown to about 800 panels.
The total number of panels, at latest count, was 3792.
The sale of retired, archived original panels continues, and, to date, we have sold 860 of them. We continue, on Etsy and eBay, to find permanent homes for the remaining 1500 which are currently available for sale.
The newest change in technique in the execution of the Map is to cock the axes for the 1-inch collage layer. The instruction cards tell me how many degrees to tip the main axis either clockwise or counter. Watch for it to show up in the daily Twitter postings!
Since I resumed selling on eBay and Etsy last December I have sold 615 original Map panels. I am thrilled! In a couple of weeks I will turn 79, and, while I am in pretty good health, I realize that I will be slowing down and that, one day, I will no longer be able to work on this project. Since I don't want my four kids to be saddled with disposing of the thousands of panels, I am anxious to do what I can to make sure that as many panels as possible will have found homes with poeple who care for them. My ultimate dream is that one day, long after I am gone, these thousands of panels will get reassembled in a monster show. So, stay tuned!
And many thanks to those of you have become foster parents to my beloved Map!
