Where Am I?

Okay, so we are well in October already. I will be leaving for Germany in two and a half weeks and until then I have plenty to do. Right now I am working on a piece to submit to a group exhibit which is titled: "Mapping Out a Future for the Arts." The invitation to participate in this project came in the summer. I was asked to pick three maps from several stacks of outdated area maps and do something artful with them. Since then I have been thinking about the map piece, and I was happy to get started a few days ago with a clear concept in my head. Looks like I will be able to finish this weekend.

I like working with maps, I love the look and the message of maps. Incorporating maps in a piece of art is somewhat tricky though because it has become so very popular to make all sorts of crafty projects with maps. I want people to look at my piece as something new and not associate it with all those map crafts. A lot of those map crafts I do like a lot. You may want to check out pinterest on this some time; there are quite a few fantastic ideas about how to give that shabby table or bookcase an eclectic map-overhaul. Love those mappy lamps. Or you can make a romantic pendant that shows where you met your love. Sure, why not. Someone found it fashionable to paste map snippets on her fake fingernails. And then those countless ideas for ornaments, magnets, envelopes, jewelry pieces, boxes, frames - yes, anything can be mapped. Or you can make huge letters covered with maps that spell "Home" or "Paris". Right.  

I really loved the shoes that I saw on a photo somewhere: Those high heels were entirely made of maps and newsprint. These shoes perfectly summarized the story of someone who has traveled the world but never had her feet touch the grounds of a different culture. Maybe the critique on superficial traveling was not intentional, but the shoes contain that message anyway and I love them for that. Because I feel that some of the intercultural misconceptions could be easily cleared up if people would use their rare opportunities to travel abroad for getting to know a little bit about the culture they are coming across. Because life is not a Sound of Music tour.