One of my objectives in defining my daily map art so loosely was that I wanted to be able to experiment with different mediums, techniques and concepts. If you're committed to a certain size and shape and kind of support every day you can't always explore a wild idea. But this year I am empowered to do anything I want.
So I had the idea to cut words out of maps. Leafing through one of the old road atlases that I'm cannibalizing for art, I stopped at Michigan and got the idea to focus on Bay City, where my father was born. Inspiration: I would cut my top collage layer from Texas, which also has a Bay City, and juxtapose the two places.
I liked the idea of letters blending into the background, but after I cut my script out of Texas and laid it on top of Michigan it blended in so well you couldn't begin to find it. Note to self: in future, cut the layers from different atlases so you get different color and density effects. But for now, I outlined the cutout letters with walnut ink before I pasted them down.
Verdict: I love this concept and would like to try it again, even though it was time-consuming. Not sure it worked as well with the maps as it did with the surfaced paper, but maybe I can combine both -- how about first surfacing a map with various paint and print effects, and using that as one of the layers? I'll try that some day.
