ABOUT CARLAND CARTOGRAPHY
I'm Jennifer Carland, Business owner and artist At Carland Cartography.
I create fine art abstracted street maps. The artwork illustrates local neighborhoods as well as broad city views of various places in the world. To me, maps are not just tools- they hold "invisible" information; they contain stories and memories that were created by the people who lived and visited there.
Maps can invoke a sense of nostalgia, a feeling of belonging and an expression of self-identity. There is a psychological connection between identity and location— location is important. My work is illustrated reminders of the places people identify with - such as the town where they lived as a child or the place where they went to college. Location is what binds our experiences together - our own experiences as we travel from one place to the next and our collective experience, as we share the physical world with one another. My work can serve as reminders of the locations that make each person's life story special and different from anyone else's journey.
I have an M.F.A. in visual arts as well as a graduate certificate from the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. After finishing my MFA, I decided to go back to school for Urban Planning based on my time working for the US Census Bureau. My classes fueled my imagination and I began to draw the neighborhoods where I lived. It felt natural to combine my training as an artist with my interest in built environments.
I find it interesting how our location on the globe shapes our identities. Location is important. People love to talk about where they grew up, where they have lived, where they have visited and where they want to go next.
The work is made by hand drawing city maps, using atlases an online mapping software as references. Everything is drawn by hand in multiple separate layers (layer of ink, layer of watercolor, layer of acrylic paints, etc), scanned into the computer and merged together to create a final piece.
Most of my prints are available for sale through my Etsy Shop. I am currently not taking commissions.