David Bowie's Realms - hand drawn map

[BrendanLorber]

Here’s my just-finished map of David Bowie’s realms. Please say hi and let me know what you think! (I’m new here!)

The Bowie map is part of my ongoing series of hand-drawn charts that depict the known poetic and musical universe, a series that also includes explorations of Emily Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Gertrude Stein, John Ashbery, Prince, Frank O’Hara and Edgar Allan Poe. Each is hand drawn in pen and ink, and then letterpressed in a small edition on 9” x 11.5” archival paper. The maps invite you to get lost within their wild topographies, each named for a trailblazing writer or musician, and to discover yourself in new worlds perhaps better than this one. The geographic portrayal of the realms would be impossible without visual worldbuilding practices made available through Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, Gygax’s Dungeons & Dragons, and Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth. But they owe an equal debt to the earthbound cartographers of the Age of Exploration. Master mapmakers like Al Idrisi, Fra Mauro, and Gerardus Mercator.

After I began the series last year, the Museum of Modern Art acquired one of my maps. In addition to MoMA, they've found homes at The Free Black Women’s Library, Opus 40 Gallery, Artists Space, The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Woodland Pattern Center, and private collections. Brooklyn Magazine just did a feature on the maps, but I don’t think I can link to that here.

I’ve been so inspired by the maps I’ve seen here since joining, and it’s an honor to be among such talented cartographers. Please let me know what you think!

Brendan