The Maps

The Map series began with the discovery of a small group of geological maps among the things that my father left behind when he moved from Connecticut to Florida in 2003, the same year he died. The maps are dated 1909-10 and show the topographical and sectional surveys of the mining activity in the Monarch-Tomichi districts of Colorado. My father collected several maps over the years all pertaining to the trips he had taken. I have no idea why he had these mining maps other than the possibility that he was attracted to their simple graphic beauty the same as I am now.
I was immediately drawn to the minute patterns that represented different minerals and the bright but earthy colors of ink. My response to these maps was from a visual standpoint only. I had no interest in the actual geological information in these 99 year old documents.

For the work in this series I would select a portion of a map based on its shapes and composition. These sections were then transferred to gessoed panels in fairly accurate proportions. My goal was not to duplicate these maps but to retain their shapes and certain graphic elements and replace the existing patterns with my own. The patterns that I created were printed from linoleum blocks, computer keyboards, cardboard and various stamps that I had made. Other areas were painted exaggerations of the original patterns. The titles for many of these paintings were the actual minerals from the map section that was used. Other titles serve more as visual narratives but in Tara on Lost Mountain the patterns were adapted from the amazing paintings by Romiro Shrestha.

In essence, these paintings are representational alterations of abstract images that were derived from geological information.