Back at work in my studio


I went to Edinburgh and London over New Year's with my wife, Meg Staley, our two sons, Henry and Lucky, and had a fabulous time! Hogmanay at Summerhall was a big treat thanks to all our new friends there.

I got back to Michigan on Tuesday but was stuck in Detroit overnight because of the winter storm and sub-zero temperatures. We drove back to the farm on Wednesday, and I got re-installed in my studio on Thursday. So, I am now back at work and in total bliss.

I am going to attempt in 2014 to post to this blog more often than in the past, but I am always torn between working on the Map and doing the peripheral things.

We'll see.......

Meantime, Happy New Year! And check out the new Ebay listings!

Progress


We have been told that the Map will be delivered to Summerhall sometime this morning. Teams of installers will be ready! I have estimated that it will take three days to complete the mounting. So, we should be finished by the time of the opening reception from 7 to 9PM on Friday.

Come on down! The show runs from  Dec 7 to Jan 24. I'll post a link to their website. Hope to see you!

Waiting....



I have been in Edinburgh for a week now waiting for the arrival of those four Saran-wrapped wine boxes containing the Map. We haven't been able to figure out exactly where they are right now but have been told by the shipper that they were due to arrive tomorrow, December 1.

In the meantime the gallery, shown above, sits empty. By the opening on Friday it should be covered, walls and floor, with my work. In the photo you can see one of the sheets of Plexiglas which will be on top of that part of the Map which will be mounted on the floor. Visitors will be able to walk from Southport to Jackson!

More on Edinburgh


Paul Robertson, the Curator at Summerhall in Edinburgh, and I, with the help of Holly and David, are madly trying to arrange for the shipping of the 3011 panels which currently constitute the Map. The show is scheduled to open on December 6, but the details of getting the monster over there are proving to be more complicated than anticipated. We'll keep you informed.

In the meantime David and I have copied about 400 panels which will give me something to work on while the originals are on exhibit.

Chris Miller and his brother Nick were here from Nashville and Charleston, WV, respectively. They interviewed me with the idea of writing something about the Map. It remains to be seen what direction their work will take.

The Brattleboro Show!


Rows N1 through S7, complete from West to East,  now adorn four walls of Brattleboro Museum and Art Center's East Gallery and will be open to the public this Friday, November 1. The show will be up until March, 2014, and I hope that many of you will get to see it.

If you come to the opening reception on Friday please be sure to introduce yourself! I look forward to meeting you.

Meanwhile plans are almost complete for a show in Edinburgh in December and January. I'll give you more info early in November.

Stay tuned!

Another request



I need your help once again. I will be traveling in a couple of weeks to help mount the show in Brattleboro, and I am in talks with a European museum to do a show there very soon. While the museums pay me a stipend to help defray my expenses their money only goes part way in meeting the costs.

SO.......I need to raise money by selling more prints and panels on Ebay. Kickstarting without Kickstarter you might say. You send money, and I send you part of my Map. Prices start, at the moment, as low as $3.20 and go as high as $300 plus for an original first generation panel. Click on the link at right and take a look!

Thanks!

Another New Void Incursion!



A new Void has appeared in the city of Fields West this morning (map year 1086).

This largely unprotected city of over 700,000 souls saw the relocation of an estimated 15,700 individuals to the alternative dimensions inside the Void.  This portion of historic old town will be greatly missed by the remaining residents.

ArtPrize 2013


Yesterday I went to Grand Rapids to start the Map installation for ArtPrize 2013. I had reserved three days to complete the work, but I had so much help that we finished the 231-panel mounting in about four hours! Thanks to my helpers: Jim, Bob, Rick, Debbie, and Dylan!

I hope that any of you within reach of Grand Rapids will come to this event. Over 1500 artists are showing in 162 venues. The whole town buzzes with art, artists, art lovers, and art talk. It opens officially on Sept 18 and runs to October 6.

I'll be there opening night and for one visit yet to be determined. I'll be sure to let you know the details. My installation is at the Women's City Club, 254 East Fulton Street. More details at: http://www.artprize.org/jerry-gretzinger/2013/jerrys-map

The reddit AMA


I never like seeing myself in a photo, but I know that reddit needs proof that I am who I am, so......

Thanks to friend, Mark, who is here visiting for taking the picture.

My son, Lucky, will help me do a reddit AMA tonight at 7PM EST. I hope to "see" a lot of you there and be able to clear up some myths about me and this work.

Thanks for tuning in!

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!