Samantha’s map of her Vermont neighborhood centers on a large green field ringed by roads, with a bunch of fun things to explore: a pond, a stream, a sinkhole, and even a snake island. All of these features are carefully labeled alongside her house, the woods, the dinosaur hills, and the chicken coop. The circular […]
Samantha was a third grader in Colchester, Vermont when she drew this map of Maui and Lanai shortly after a visit to Hawaii. The islands are rendered in layered greens surrounded by swirling blues, with an impressive number of place names packed in including Haleakala Crater, the Seven Sacred Pools, the Garden of the Gods, […]
Ben was a fifth grader and avid hiker when he drew this remarkably detailed topographic map of Franconia Notch, New Hampshire. Dense hand-rendered contour lines fill the page, with dozens of labeled peaks, trails, brooks, ponds, and roads including Mt. Lafayette, Mt. Lincoln, the Kancamagus Highway, and Tripoli Road, all recorded with the kind of […]
Johnny writes, “my contribution is a map of a paintball field my friends and I built in the woods of my old house about ten years ago when we were in high school. It’s located in Bethel, Connecticut. Although it is not to scale, it still retains the major points. It’s been a long time […]
Kees, an artist from Rotterdam, sent us this drawing of Western Europe. The work shows only waterways (rivers, canals, harbours, locks) as seen from the air. Through his drawings, Kees reconstructs his nomadic childhood on the waterways of Europe. Throughout his childhood, his parents ran the cargoship, “Attacus,” sailing the rivers and canals of Belgium, […]
Victoria gave us this map one night at the opening of a municipalWORKSHOP project in Wilmington, Delaware. She drew it with the help of her friend while the two of them reminisced about their hometown. We see a single road running from top to bottom connecting interstate 95 with the Kirkwood Highway (Route 2). Various […]
Ishkabibel is an imaginary place Mary and her cousin, Marianne, inhabited when they were very young. This beautiful watercolor is Mary’s reimagining of their childhood haven, created as a gift for Marrianne’s birthday.
Sabine’s map combines memories of her childhood growing up in Germany with glimpses of her current life in Arkansas. She uses the street layout of her German neighborhood to create a visual structure. She then fills the blocks with text derived from the free association of childhood memories and her contemporary daily routine.
Aura drew this map by memory of her hometown where she grew up. She writes, “while drawing, I realized that I would not have been able to remember nearly as much detail about my surroundings had my neighborhood journeys relied on the regular use of a GPS device (like many of us use today). The […]
David mapped his entire personal fanverse, the sprawling imaginative universe built from a lifetime of science fiction, fantasy, and pop culture. The map organizes his fandoms spatially: star systems for Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars, and Star Trek; a “Galaxy of Limbo” for He-Man, Thundercats, and Transformers; and a world map dotted with MacGyver, LOST, and […]
Chase sent us this map drawn by his friend Tony Gonzalez. Tony drew it to show the backyard baseball setup he had growing up. Nothing is labeled on the map, but the field is clearly visible towards the bottom. One thing the drawing does make clear is the batter faced the house, a problem every […]
Amanda drew this map as adult while reminiscing about her childhood home that she lived in from 1982-85. The detailed legend in the upper left corner explains the symbolic representations throughout the drawing and reveals that certain elements, such as the “pool” & “grill,” were likely imagined through play.