Creative Cartography

Jaymie Lamperti
FEMALE PROFILE ON MAP
Graphite, Ink, and Watercolor Pencil

The blank female portrait represents beauty of the earth as suggested by her missing eye and eyebrow.  Color is minimal to represent the destructive power that can be caused either by mother nature or by human destruction.  

Veronica Worel
PUEBLO
Pen

Using the maps interior is a pen, detail sketch of a pueblo ruin somewhere from the maps location. The area is up north near the Navajo and Hopi reservations.

Andrew Caruso
NON-CIRCULATING EDUCATION
Lithography on Arizona map

This work represents the vast amount of ESL students left behind in the Arizona public school system. The issue of children being left behind primarily stems from shortsighted legislation and the ineffective policies and procedures that follow.

Aimee Ollinger
INSIDE OUT
Ink and imitation gold flakes

Nature and biology is what drives my inspiration. I am expressing looking deeper into nature at a microscopic level. 

April Chiarle
TOGETHER
Map, Yupo, Vellum, Images (internet)

This piece of work has images, distorted and representational, transparent layers of paper, and a composition that raises questions about the way our country handles media about tragedies. There is a certain transparency, especially now, that our leaders choose to have about these events that manipulates the way we perceive the information.

Bethany Kee-Booth
ALL FOR ONE & ONE FOR ALL
Graphite on Arizona map

Keeping the inherent sharing quality of maps in mind, I chose imagery which correlated to this theme. These joined hands both represent a literal depiction of a connection while also serving as an invitation to connect with the viewer.   

Brenda Amerind
GATEWAY
Ink

When my grandmother was still living in Payson, we visited the Tonto Natural Bridge many times. It's been almost two years since she passed away, so when I saw this map I knew I had to do something with it.

Connor Damaschi
FALLEN EARTH
Watercolor 

My piece titled “FALLEN EARTH” is indicative of the relationship that man has to nature and the built environment “he” has created at the expense of the natural world. The cosmonaut is illustrated in a green hue and with vines coming out from within the helmet and suit to represent the inherent connection and dependency that humans have on the environment. The composition displays a foreshortened figure reseeding downward toward the map, emblematic of the “Fall of Adam” as it relates to the surmised destruction of modern civilization as a result of the abuse of knowledge in our ability to alter the environment.

Emily Youmans
THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
Watercolor, Cut Paper and String on Yupo

This piece is a combination of my interest in topography line work and vibrant colors. It is an abstract idea of how land masses are formed by the force of water and how nature creates captivating surfaces.

Nathan Francois
IN THAT PLACE, THE EARTH’S RAW EMOTIONS SHOWED US HOW FALSE OURS WERE
Sharpie, ink, watercolor

This map was originally of a forest in Northern California where I coincidentally spent a vacation with an ex, and looking back now, the natural beauty of the place emphasizes to me how unnatural and manufactured the relationship had become. My work is an attempt to show the emotions of the earth breaking through.

Margaret Golonka
I HATE HOW I HIDE MYSELF
Ink, acrylic, paint marker, and foam adhesive on paper map

This work is a meditation on shyness and feeling small. Here, a paper map has been cut with an x-acto knife to create holes that invite the viewer to look past the top paper to view the image and words underneath.

Marissa Henriquez
LOST AT SEA
Ink, watercolor, and collage

This piece is made to convey the blurry sense of confusion regarding the future. Feeling lost often comes with depersonalization and isolation, which I worked to communicate through displacement of the figure.

Michael Angelo Torres 
BEAUTIFUL WONDERS
Watercolor

Two unfamiliar beings co-existing in our world. 

Stephanie Morrison
HOME
Topographic map, Watercolor, and Acrylic

The focus of describing the place someone calls Home is often on the location of their house, rather than the variety of life that surrounds them. Here, I use imagery from the local desert to represent Arizona, the place that I call Home.

Paulina Ramos Moreno
COLOR CRYSTALS
Watercolor

Using maps as my paper for the project made me realize that my painting looks more complete and abstract since the printed ink makes the painting more interesting, completely different to what I am used to work with. Working with maps helped me to be more open to work on materials already made instead of starting to work with a white canvas. The maps brought me new ideas instantly where working with a white canvas does not.

Rhiannon Pullin
FORESTSCAPE
Ink on paper

My map is a view of a Massachusetts forest, being primarily green and white. I chose a scene of a robot in a forest, to show a striking point of view between artificial and natural.

Victoria Mitchell
TIRED
Graphite, Colored Pencil, String

The piece is supposed to convey a feeling of apathy when it comes to the idea of being able to easily travel in Arizona. There was never any reliable form of transportation growing up, so most people I knew would simply laze around because they didn’t want to suffer in the heat just to get to another person.

Miriam Del Saz 
FROM THE PLAZA TO THE FREEWAY
Photolithograph, stitching

A reflection on the layout of the urban space, how it is understood and how it affects us as an individual and community. The piece faces the physical form of two very different spaces, Valencia, Spain and Phoenix, Arizona on a border map.