At the US Geological Survey office, I discovered some discontinued maps in the discount bin, and brought a roll of them back to my studio. When I spread them out, I was quite taken with them and started drawing on the maps themselves. The maps have their own language, and no matter our individual experience, we can use a map to navigate through an untried landscape.
Use of the land is impossible without maps. Antique maps are cherished by collectors and sold by dealers as are etchings and engravings. Artists were instrumental in the creation of early maps, as they codified a language to translate the earth’s surface into a language that could be read on paper. I used the compositions in these maps as a jumping off point for an overlay of my own marks and drawing in the language of abstraction, working with geometric forms superimposed upon the gridwork of the map itself.
