Of Maps and Meaning
Maps convey both a sense of place and the experience and agenda of their maker. This map commemorates my trip to Hog Island Audubon Camp in Maine this summer for the Arts and Birding workshop. It’s one thing to have your daily schedule or itinerary on a piece of paper; quite another to illustrate it and imbue it with additional meaning and memory: puffins flying overhead, the sound of the sea gently lapping on shore, moss carpeted forests of spruce and fir, winter wrens trilling their song in the silence. I hope you are enjoying summer and making good memories of your own.
p.s. Registration for 2023 Hog Island programs is expected to open in October. Registration for the final session of Savoring Summer Sketchbook Series at Winslow Art Center on August 23 (virtual session) is open now.
Many thanks for all the kind wishes of good health to my husband last week! He’s doing great!
Drawn In 
Jean, I love your map with puffins, and it brings back great memories! We were fortunate to make it to Eastern Egg Rock and Hog Island this year for a brief but wonderful Puffin Excursion. We hope to return for Hog Island camp another year.
Wonderful! I’m glad you got to visit Eastern Egg Rock, see puffins, and get a taste for Hog Island!
I love this style of map! I have recently been creating “experience” maps like this by placing icons in places where we saw neat things or experienced something cool — like standing under an eagle’s nest observing a juvenile wing-flapping with the adult watching carefully, bird mud nests on cliffs that we could only see from the kayak, etc. Glad your husband is doing well! Yay!!!
Thanks– I like having a way to record those small moments that I might otherwise forget with the passage of time. There are so many ways to do a map– it’s fun to experiment.
As a geographer, a naturalist, and an appreciator of art and nature-journaling, I love this!
Thanks Debra!
Brilliant work, Jean! I’m inspired to keep working on my mapping skills and adding them to my journal pages. Your style really shines with the Hog Island map! Absolutely brilliant!
Thanks Barb. Keep at it — a map is a nice addition to a journal, especially when you are traveling.
Hi Jean, Is there any way to get on a notification list for registration for the 2023 Hog Island workshop. My sister and I have been wanting to do this for the past couple years. Thank you, Kat
I’m not sure, Kat. I recommend that you reach out to camp and ask. They have a newsletter signup, so that might be a way to hear about registration opening: https://hogisland.audubon.org/about
Love the map. I used to be a cartographer.
One day, I’ll be at Hog Island with you.
Beautiful work and what a wonderful vacation! That would be amazing.