Happy Birthday, Great Lakes!

Hello dear readers!  I want to celebrate a little with you today, as I realized I’ve reached a bit of an occasion.  It’s not a huge occasion, granted, but if I offerred you a celebratory beer you’d probably take the beer, so that makes it official enough.

Great Lakes, which has become a bit of an iconic piece for me, turned four years old this month.  (Or possibly last month.  I never really wrote it down.  Have another beer.)  Actually, the only reason I noticed the date was because the organization that originally commissioned it recently came back to have me create some more pieces for them.  (They actually sought me out because they thought my work would be perfect for the project.  As an artist, I can tell you that nothing, but nothing, makes me grin inside more than hearing that.)  So I thought in honor of the occasion, I would tell you the story behind the original Great Lakes.
I was actually commissioned to create a gift — or rather, 20 identical gifts.  A small token of appreciation given to the distinguished speakers of a symposium on issues surrounding the Great Lakes.  It was my first real corporate commission, and my first leap off the bridge.  You know how they say to take risks when making art?  How about walking into a meeting and telling them “you know all that stuff you wanted?  Yeah, I didn’t really do any of that.  But what do you think about this idea?”  I’m sure it didn’t sound quite so belligerent, but inside my stomach was in knots.  I think deep down I believed this was probably the only corporate commission I’d ever get, so I wanted to do something I’d be proud of, just in case I never got the opportunity again.

I showed them this rough sketch (yeah, my photoshop skills were pretty rough in the day!), and explained that instead of 20 identical pieces, the 20 parts would become a larger whole.  I wanted it to parallel the synergy of the symposium; the whole as greater than the sum of its parts.  At the end of the week-long event, the piece would be separated into the 20 individual sections, which could each be hung on a wall separately.  The speakers would receive one square of a 20-piece puzzle.

Great, they said!  There’s only one problem.  Some people are going to get a piece with a lake, and some are going to get a plain boring square of copper.  (I remember trying to convince them that the copper was really pretty cool “plain”.  Back in those days, most of the pieces I sold were “plain”, with just the etched leaf texture.)  But they told me to rework the design.  Every square needed to have both copper and red, land and water.  Back to the drawing board.

I don’t know how many billion times I redrew that map, thankfully I didn’t keep most of those sketches.  I remember at one point yelling in frustration to myself what am I supposed to do, move the lake?!?  There were moments when I was convinced it would be easier.  I did save this lovely sketch, mostly because it cracks me up.  I knew it was atrocious at the time, but it technically met the criteria, and I was running out of options:

This is what the Great Lakes look like if you’re skydiving.  While intoxicated.  Thankfully, it was rejected.

So given that (a) I had to have land and water on every square, and (b) I couldn’t move, rotate, or distort the lakes, that left me only one option:

Zoom in.  Show every lake, but not every inch of every lake.  Break a rule that was never actually a rule in the first place.

            

8×10 inch Great Lakes map

Now with more blue!

In honor of the occasion, I’ve added a new color option to my Great Lakes map series ~ smaller versions are now available in copper & blue!  (5×7 inch is $75; 8×10 inch is $160.  Click on image above to purchase or learn more!) Of course if you want it in any other size, color, or want a different location, just email me ~ I would love to work with you.

Until next time, take care, and have a great week!

Chris