The Sweet Up and Down

This is just a sample of what I have done. Before, I created a city named Mason City and it grew from a small town consisting of three pieces of paper to a sprawling city of about 40 pieces of paper. It was something I was proud of but, sadly, I had to throw it away because of liquid damage and other problems. I kind of wish I would've kept it as a reminder or even just to show it off. I tried to redo the damaged parts but the paper grew weaker and started to tear easily. Below is a small map of Mason City to give you an idea of what it looked like. Just imagine it spread over several feet of paper.


I love drawing maps and have for years. People have said I should be a cartographer or a city engineer but you really need to be good at math for both of those jobs and I want to stay as far away from using math at work as possible. The map below is of a town I had a dream about. The town bordered a man-made lake and the road winded around the lake and limestone bluffs. The imposing view of a factory interrupted the rural horizon. I didn't get too far into the dream until I woke up but the dream has always kind of creeped me out. Whenever I'm near a lake I drive around trying to find anything reminiscent of the dream I had.


I have always been fascinated with maps as anyone should be able to tell you. I don't know why, maybe it fits in with my fascination on street names. My fascination with maps doesn't just extend to city and county maps. Back in 7th grade, a friend and I created our own island nation: Shmand. I don't remember how we came up with the names but I was the one to develop the surrounding island provinces. I have no idea where he came up with the name Shmand but the name stuck.


As far as I could tell, Shmand was located in the Caribbean but when I actually drew the map and gave it a history, I moved it to the South Pacific, near Antarctica. I consider Shmand a crowning achievement of originality, even though you could say I stole the basis of the idea from someone else. It could also be considered the pinnacle of my dorkiness, of which I am very proud.



~Brian