It was a busy week. For Lilla Rogers' MATS class this week, the topic was Editorial Illustration and our assignment was to create a map of where we live. My first thought was WAIT - I Iive in suburbia (albeit a beautiful one) surrounded by trees, houses and a major attraction of my hometown is the Bed, Bath and Beyond/Old Navy shopping center. What am i going to draw?? It made me miss my vintage days of living in the colorful and vibrant West VIllage of NYC (pre how it is now with all the fancy shops on Bleecker St.), then the Back Bay in Boston and later within the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. However life & priorities change. Now we need a yard and parks and a good school system and fortunately I have found these and am additionally surrounded by amazingly beautiful, traditional old stone homes. How could I convey this green and grey suburban-ness to my classmates in Hawaii, Thailand & Australia among many others???

Well, I started with words and built up from there. I added many personal references and things I found special, random and funny. (Yes there is a really sign in the park that says speed limit 7.5 mph). I really could've added more but had to stop due to time and space restrictions. Also - the amazing thing was while I was working on this I had on in the background All Things Considered/NPR, and the show began to discuss the 100th birthday of the Lincoln Highway (which was last week) and which happens to be the large black line which runs corner to corner on my map. I am on this road at least once a day and it was such a coincidence this came on as I was working on this.

Any with that... I present my excessively excessive map of my hometown. Enjoy!