Maps were designed to help us find our way. There is comfort in their certainty, in knowing which direction to go and what terrain we might encounter along the way. We follow their lines almost without thinking.
Then life contradicts the map. The path that we were told would lead somewhere doesn’t. We worked hard and still struggle. We achieved the milestones that we were told would make us happy, but we are left unfulfilled.
Field Notes: Cartography considers the maps we inherit and the lives we build within their boundaries. Family, culture, geography, religion, and the systems around us shape what we understand is possible long before we begin choosing for ourselves.
Eventually, we may have to question which lines still belong to us. Once we do, the edges stop looking like boundaries and start looking like places to go.
36×36, acrylic.
Maps were designed to help us find our way. There is comfort in their certainty, in knowing which direction to go and what terrain we might encounter along the way. We follow their lines almost without thinking.
Then life contradicts the map. The path that we were told would lead somewhere doesn’t. We worked hard and still struggle. We achieved the milestones that we were told would make us happy, but we are left unfulfilled.
Field Notes: Cartography considers the maps we inherit and the lives we build within their boundaries. Family, culture, geography, religion, and the systems around us shape what we understand is possible long before we begin choosing for ourselves.
Eventually, we may have to question which lines still belong to us. Once we do, the edges stop looking like boundaries and start looking like places to go.
36×36, acrylic.