A clarification....



But first today's panel: S2/E14. More blue water and sandy beaches. Just like Northern Michigan where we live.

That HuffPost headline, "Man Spends 50 Years.....", and now a very similar one on oddity.com, implies that I have worked on the Map, non-stop, for 50 years. I estimate that I have averaged 20 minutes a day over 30 years. I stopped working on this project in about 1983, and it was stored in my attic until 2003 when my son, Henry, found it. He brought the box down to me and said, "Hey, Dad! What is this? And can I have it?" I got re-inspired and took up working on it every day.

So, at 20 minutes a day and allowing for my 20-year coffee break, I have worked on this for a total of 219,000 minutes. If I worked 8 hours a day that would come to
456.25 days or 1 year and 3 months. To have "wasted" 15 months of my 70 years and 9 months doesn't seem too bad.

Blue Water


Oh to be out on the blue water of today's panel, S3/E14!

Instead, I am trying to deal with all the Internet attention of the past ten days. It started with the reddit thread on August 10. There were almost 700 comments, and I tried to read them all. My general response is to say that I am planning to do an AMA in the next ten days. My son, Lucky, will be here to help me. Maybe he will be willing to type my responses. I'll keep you posted.

Then there was the HuffPost article whose headline made it sound as though I had been holed up in a cave for the last 50 years doing nothing but make my Map. That put me on the defensive. I should have shrugged it off the way I do all the OCD and autism comments on reddit. But I got caught in the web. I appreciate the people who always seem to come to my defense. They are usually artists who understand and appreciate the artistic urge and process. Thanks!

TCFF Tile Hunt



The Traverse City Film Festival is in progress, and the town is buzzing with filmies and foodies and beeries. Maybe there are som Mappies out there, too!

So, I have decided to have another Jerry's Map "tile" hunt. I'll be placing a lot of the 2 by 2 1/2 inch cardboard mounted "tiles" of Map panels in public places around the city.

Keep your eyes peeled for them! And let me know here if you find one.....

Am I alone?



I think of my Map as a unique work of art, but maybe I am deluding myself. Some people have compared me to Henry Darger. I'd rather not be lumped with someone who clearly had some faulty wiring. My wiring is intact (self-diagnosed) though the circuits may be complicated.

Am I alone? Do you know of other artists who have basically spent their entire adult years creating a single never-ending work? Made a highly detailed, open-edged, 2000 square foot painting? Shown this work in its entirety only twice in his/its life?

Another post! Another show!



Two posts in two days! Wow! I can barely keep up with myself......

But I digress. A week ago I was at an opening in a beautiful new art center near me here in Northern Michigan, and I was approached by the members of its gallery committee. They invited me to do a show there! The details are very pre-liminary at this point, but, once again, I will keep you posted. What we know is that it will be quite a large section of the Map, will be sometime after November, 2013, and will involve local students. Very exciting!

PS. The image above is the panel I am working on today. I found the watercolor-y feel of it to be very appealing and decided, for lack of anything better, to head this post with it.

ArtPrize 2013!



It looks as though I will be participating in ArtPrize once again this Fall. I exhibited a large chunk of the Map four years ago in this international competition and had a fantastic time. I'll give you more details once I have a firm agreement with a venue.

For those of you who are not familiar with this event, it is a huge (1500 artists and 150+ venues) art competition held each September since 2009 in downtown Grand Rapids. The project was the brainchild of Rick De Vos who also donated the $500,000 prize pot. This year the pot, most of which is handed out based on public voting, will be $560,000. That makes ArtPrize the largest in the world.

For more info, hit the link at the right. See you there!

A fresh invitation


Since I haven't received any guest artist contributions in a long time I'm going to issue a new invitation to you artists out there. The panel above, now being integrated into the Map, was sent by our friend, Nancy Allen, several years ago.

Here's how it works: you contact me through this site, and I tell you where to send your 2-D, 8 by 10 inch piece. I can return the original if you want or incorporate it directly into the Map. You give me permission to copy your piece as material for collage and to sprinkle bits throughout the rest of the Map. You also understand that I will be collaging over your work to integrate it with its neighboring panels.

So, get in touch! I'll be waiting. Thanks!

Our neighbors' map installation


Our neighbors in Cold Spring, John and Jen, bought 15 Map panels from me a couple of years ago and mounted them in their dining area. To protect the prints from spatters or dust they put them behind a single large plexiglas sheet. I think they look great!

If you want to do something similar, let me know. I'll be happy to quote you a price for making custom prints like these. Or, take a look at what's being offered right now on Ebay. Some prints are as low as $4, and most are currently $10 or under.

Number hungry? Here are some garden-fresh stats!


The population of the Map as of the latest census (1053) was 16,304,885. There were 27 parishes and 416 cities.

The largest cities were:
     1. Ukrainia                  2,414,234
     2. Geo                        1,663,163
     3. Sabratha                1,033,782
     4. Wybourne                 990,212
     5. Leyemouth                800,363
     6. Southchurch             730,140
     7. Jackson                    586,034
     8. Nelleville                   585,795
     9. Fields West              454,782
    10. Plaeides                  423,152

As of the last inventory (2/17/13) the Map was composed of 2738 panels covering 1521 square feet. 1720 First Generation panels have been archived. The maximum East-West dimension is 44 feet, and the maximum North-South is 49.4 feet.

What else would you like to know?

A new show!


I have just been invited to show a large section of the Map at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center in Brattleboro, Vermont from November 1, 2013 to March 4, 2014! I hope that some of you will be able to come. So, mark your calendars!

I expect to show about 800 of the central panels (including the one above) in a gallery space that will accommodate the entire width of the Map wrapped around four walls. This will be the first time that a section has enveloped a whole room. I think that the installation will be very effective.

If any of you know of other venues for shows please let me know. I'd love to be able to exhibit out West in this 50th anniversary year of the start of the Map. Thanks!

A note on Map dating


Some of you have noticed that those tiny numbers on the Map panels do not represent altitudes but rather indicate the date when that part of the panel was painted or collaged. Those Map dates correspond to "our" years, and I keep a list of equivalent dates. Currently there are about 85 Map years to each of our calendar years.

In the early years of my Map-making the years were determined by the rate of increase in the Map population. A one percent increase in population was equal to one Map year. You may see some tiny hand-written dates on the early panels.

In recent times that system became too tedious to maintain. Also, because I can now print sheets of clear labels with computer generated numbers the number of date labels per Map year has become arbitrary. We are currently in Map year 1050.

An expanding Void


The Void Incursion which most recently hit the Polk neighborhood of Wybourne in Map Years 752 and 805 yesterday (Map Year 1045) consumed another large expanse of that city carrying off to another dimension an estimated 28,590 people. Taken, too, were over 20 commercial blocks and one rail station.

Since there is no defense wall in this area it is widely assumed that the entire West end of Wybourne will, one day, be lost to the Void.

Another new direction


On January 9th of this year I switched from doing collage in 2" squares to doing it in 1" squares. I thought I might get worn out doing it this way since, to cover the entire map, it would take almost 224,000 of the little guys!

But so far, so good! I love the way it looks. You can see its manifestation along the lower edge of the collage work above. What do you think?

A special offer


Everyone who buys two Map panel prints from me on ebay between now and January 31, 2013 will receive a FREE randomly chosen print! Buy four and get TWO FREE!

So, don't be shy! Start your collection today. And tell your neighbor or best friend.......

Thanks!

New directions


At the beginning of the new year I changed the system by which I move through the Map stacks. You probably know that the former system had me move top to bottom (North to South) and right to left (West to East) through the stacks according to the number turned up on my stack of cards.

To make things more interesting and random I now now move up, down, left, or right depending on the suit of the card. A nine of diamonds, for example, would have me move nine panels to the West of the previous one. If the number takes me to the edge of the Map I reverse direction and keep counting.

So far it's been fun!

Systems, systems, systems.......






As most of you know by now the creation of the Map is based on a series of systems which dictate the manner in which it is executed.

The same is true of the selling of Map panels and prints. Each time I work on a panel (as determined by the draw of the cards) I make a copy of that panel and sign and date it. I offer those prints for sale on eBay. The price is determined by the average sale price to date. I take that average and multiply it by 1.2. If the print doesn't sell at that price within 30 days I re-list it at 80% of the original price. I reduce it another 20% each month after that until it sells. In that way the market determines the price of the prints. The first offering price is currently around $15.

I am now posting the available prints from North to South. I post two new prints for every one that sells.

Take a look and start collecting now! Thanks!


My software quandary/plea!


I compose panels like the one above on my Photo Smart 3.9.0.0 software that came with an HP printer that is now long discarded. That software is the best photo manipulation system I have ever had the pleasure of using. It is simple, intuitive, and does what I want it to without confusing me or making me scream expletives. I can drag my scanned 8 by 10 inch panel images onto a custom 16-panel grid, and the software resizes them for me.

All that is well and good, but here's the problem: it's installed on my 15-year old, soon-to-retire desktop, and I don't have the installation disk. People a lot smarter than I am have tried to copy the software so that it could be installed on a newer computer, but their attempts have failed.

What can I do? Does anyone know of a program that can do what I need? Everyone suggests Adobe Elements, but I don't want to buy it without being sure that it will work. I tried to download a trial copy but got bogged down in the process. Help!  I am very open to suggestions!

And thanks for listening to my rant!

The next step....


And now the show is over. The Map sits in a dozen boxes in my garage waiting for the ride to Michigan. With any luck it will be unpacked and re-installed on shelves in my back bedroom studio at the farm by November 10 or 11. And I will be back at work on it! I can't wait!

The MASS MoCA show was a huge success- at least from my vantage point. The staff, headed by Joe Thompson, Sue Killam, and Eric Enderle, was extremely supportive. They seem to answer all questions with a "Yes!" They undertake any project with the attitude that anything is possible. And then they manage to pull it off! I owe them a huge debt of gratitude!

PS...big thanks to Steve Taylor who rode the scary Genie lift to get this spectacular picture. Greg Whitmore's updated video will be coming along soon!