Mapping the way
Illustrated maps, a new town, and other tales from midwinter
Midwinter greetings! First off: I’m very thankful you’re reading this. Direct communication to my dedicated mailing list feels important and invaluable at this time. In recent weeks many people have been quite understandably logging off and leaving Instagram/the Metaverse hellscape. Illustrator Carson Ellis captures the messiness of that situation for artists in the post below:
While I’m still on Instagram for now, I plan to continue sharing my more personal reflections and art process here. On that note, a little hello from me and my real face:
This photo contains two significant life updates:
The first: in January I finished my most ambitious knitting project to date, this amazing sweater! (Pattern is the Stagecoach by Caitlin Hunter.) I’m so pleased with how it turned out - feels like wearable art. Find me staying warm in it this winter, contemplating various knitting metaphors for life: joining, unraveling, looping, patience, etc. I’m thankful to share a connection through this craft with some amazing knitters, sewers and artists in my family.
The second: In this photo I’m in a new studio space! I have temporarily relocated and to the sweet northwestern town of Smithers—I moved in with my partner, who currently works here. After (literal) years of long drives between the Bulkley Valley and Prince George, we’re taking a break from the long distance lifestyle. I first came to this area for a job as a wildland firefighter about ten years ago, and over the years it’s come to feel quite like a second home. Moving is very hard! But I’m looking forward to new inspiration in this next chapter beneath the mountains. PS Prince George pals and patrons: I’ll dearly miss seeing you regularly, but all my roots are still there, so I’ll be back often and am still available for creative collaborations!
As I settle into a new space and set up a studio in a spare bedroom, I’ve been taking 20 minutes to draw (almost) daily—capturing what’s outside the window, my partner’s dog sleeping, and people passing by the house. Keeping my hands busy helps with the challenges of a big life change, and drawing lets me pay attention to what interests me. Ultimately it’s also the foundation of all my art and business, and as with any skill it’s a muscle that needs exercise. I find that when I draw my life, I engrain the mundane moments deeper into my memory (something I wrote about previously here).
Mapping the way
Upon arriving in a different town with way-finding on my mind, I decided to set myself my first illustration brief of the year, for a project I’ve been putting off for ages: an illustrated map. Let’s delve into some map inspiration and illustration process:
As a kid, I would spread atlases on the floor and draw the flags of the world with colored pencils. I’ve always been fascinated by maps—both as art objects themselves, and as systems of knowledge that simultaneously reveal and distort. Maps show us one particular conception of the world, but they can also lie and leave things out. That’s what Jamaican poet Kei Miller writes about in this poem, What the Mapmaker Ought to Know:
WHAT THE MAPMAKER OUGHT TO KNOW
On this island things fidget.
Even history.
The landscape does not sit
willingly
as if behind an easel
holding pose
waiting on
someone
to pencil
its lines, compose
its best features
or unruly contours.
Landmarks shift,
become unfixed
by earthquake
by landslide
by utter spite.
Whole places will slip
out from your grip.
Creating a map is an act of imagination, shaped by how the maker understands a place. This is clear when looking at maps of the ancient world, which appear abstract and often unrecognizable to our modern eyes. Here’s a map of the world as seen in an eleventh-century Arabic manuscript (The Book of Curiosities of the Sciences, and Marvels for the Eyes):
Contemporary artists continue to explore and reimagine map imagery. Some of my personal favourites: Joyce Kozloff blends the designs of ancient cartography with her own childhood drawings in her painted maps. Newfoundland artist (and personal friend!) Marlene Creates created a hand-drawn memory map of all the places she could remember from her rural property outside St. John’s, after spending a month away. Sami artist Hans Ragnar Mathisen weaves animals, folklore, and Sami language into the borders of his hand-drawn maps—a reclamation of the Sami worldview and culture. Anishnaabe artist Bonnie Devine’s installation Battle for the Woodlands extends a 19th century colonial map of Upper and Lower Canada, with the Great Lakes painted as large animal spirits to represent their life-giving importance.
Hand-drawn maps are also widely used for illustration, such as for tourism centres/museums, travel guides, and travel magazines. Since travel and the outdoors are major influences in my life and art, I’d like to do future illustration work in this field. In the spirit of showing the kind of work I’d like to be commissioned for, I gave myself the assignment of illustrating a map of Smithers as I start to know the place better. I decided to focus on honing my digital skills, drawing the map on my iPad using Procreate:
I may offer a limited print release of this illustration, for Smithereens and Bulkley Valley lovers near and far - stay tuned for that. The old illustrated map of PG I create years ago was also well-loved and although I have since retired it from print, I might create an updated version later this spring!
Some encouragement if you’ve been putting off something you want to create: I’ve had this assignment on the back burner for a year and a half and built it up in my head as an enormously complicated thing, but once I set myself a hard deadline, I completed it in five days, from earliest doodle to final artwork. Starting can be SO hard, but once you’re in the process, it might even unexpectedly feel fun.
Dreaming and scheming
A map of a different kind: I recently wrote a mind map of illustration things that I’m curious to create and be commissioned for. While I don’t set New Year’s resolutions, I have taken some time in the cold, dark first month to imagine possibilities and assignments that could expand my illustration portfolio.
A few of the projects I’d like to do in the future are: paint a mural, create an editorial illustration for a magazine, see my artwork on an album cover, and illustrate a line of greeting cards.
And a fun, non-work related dream I’m putting in writing here: I’m currently watching a fun, dark TV series set in New Mexico (The Curse), and I realize I have dreamt about visiting that area (especially Santa Fe) for years. Maybe soon?
Are you dreaming and scheming? What do you want to create this year?
And if you’d like to work together in 2025, you can see my portfolio and get in touch with me through my website here. Perhaps you have a project that needs some illustrations or custom artwork?
News and assorted things:
The paintings from my show Up Around the Bend are going on another Yellowhead Highway road trip and will be exhibited at the Smithers Art Gallery from February 26th to March 29th. If you’re in the area you can join me at the opening reception on the evening of Friday, February 28th!
RIP David Lynch, a singular cinematic artist and oddball.
I’m currently reading Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead—a great companion for the cold dead of winter.
Stay warm and well until next month,
Emily
If you’d like to learn more about me/my work you can also visit my website, my Instagram, or the archive of my previous newsletters.
Missing our Cranbrook Hill walks but so excited for you!
Your posts are always so beautifully written and thoughtful <3
Best wishes for a new start in Smithers. The jumper, by the way is gorgeous - and so great to see your happy face!