Personal Geographies

1-1-22 map collage

2-1-22 Map collage

“Every journey is a journey back to yourself.” (author unknown)

There are some subjects and visual motifs that continue to resonate down through the years. For me that is maps. Much of my early creative works involve maps or journeys of one kind or another; etchings and lino-cut prints of maps, poems about maps and more than 10 blogposts that refer to maps, navigation or journeys.

When I was thinking of how I would create my daily artworks in 2022, I realised I wanted to include a subject that I was interested in or a technique that would stretch me. I decided to return to daily collages and this in turn led me back to maps. I realise I’ve been making collages with maps in one form or another for the past 10 years. 

Travelling with maps takes me on a journey into childhood and long car trips where I would follow our progress with the RACV maps. My father would visit the nearest RACV office and bring back folded strip maps which divided the journey into segments of highway marked  by mileages to the towns along the route.

I still have these in my box of maps, along with historical maps from National Geographic magazines, maps from our first travels to Europe and topographical maps from our journey by horse and cart on our honeymoon.

Maps and stamps took me around the world when I was a kid, it’s no wonder that I love them, especially for the past two years when travel had been severely constrained.

When I created my #91 day postcard series, maps were a big feature of the daily collages. Two map collages form June 2020 helped me bring the Black Lives Matter protests into an Australian context and research what was happening in Redfern.

I look at maps as my friends, waiting to tell their story of place and time. I have started the year with the first of my two collages, where the maps are a substrate but the journey with them is a compositional one.

I don’t know where these maps will take me this year, perhaps that is part of the allure. I have my maps of Scotland to take on my journey and will collect other maps at other destinations. I will cut squares of paper to take with me and pack my portable studio consisting of a small cloth bag with space for a glue stick, several Derwent Inktense pencils, paintbrush and stackable palette of water colour paints. It is amazing what you can make with a travel kit, some paper and maps.

Travel with Me - The Sketchbook Project, Brooklyn Art Library, 2011

Dubrovnik postcard from the #91 days project, 2018