Dream

I've been having really vivid dreams lately, with bright colors and indelible imagery. The most unusual one included a scene where I looked up and saw these "clouds" made of writhing, tangled subway trains, with arms coming out of the windows so they looked like millipedes. My main response to this in the dream was just to think "Looks like it's going to rain". I haven't forgotten the image even several days later, so I thought I'd try to sketch it.

My tiniest fan!

At the opening reception for the Somerville Museum exhibit on Friday night, we saw this little kid analyzing my map drawing with his dad. Apparently they were charting the course they would take through this particular imaginary place. The exhibit has work by 150 different local artists participating in Somerville Open Studios, and it's on display through May 18th.

Watery Maps

I've been making more maps lately with wide stretches of watercolor and interconnected islands. I like the watery, organic texture of the watercolor and then the precise road lines. I started with small card-size drawings:

9"x12":

and a huge 18"x24" drawing that was in the City Hall show last month:

Recently a lot of people have been sending me links for the City Tracking project which uses Open Street Map data in artistic/informative ways. The Watercolor style is particularly similar to what I've been making lately, so I thought I'd post it below. I recommend checking out the project, it's very cool!

Inside-Out Gallery in Davis Square

The windows by the Davis Square CVS always show an art exhibition, and this month they're featuring artists participating in Somerville Open Studios. I have a couple map drawings in the display, so if you're around Davis I would recommend taking a look!

Interview with Babel/Salvage

I recently participated in an email interview with Babel/Salvage, a blog/small press/fledgling boutique in Seattle. Check it out if you ever wanted to hear me muse about what I do for pages and pages. The interview is currently at the top of their blog, but the permalink is here: http://babelsalvage.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/featured-artist-emily-garfield/