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Places I've Never Heard Of
2008
Ink on bristol paper
25 pieces, 4 x 4 inches each (28.5 x 28.5 inches total)
Each piece represents a single place (territory, sovereign nation, etc.) I’d never heard of before November 2008. The diagonal stripes of color are taken from the colors of the place’s flag. The solid triangle represents its location in the world: red = Oceania, yellow = Americas, green = Europe, blue = Africa, black = Asia, white = Antarctic. The striped triangle represents the reasons why I had no knowledge of the location: dark green = island, light green = small, orange = remote, red = not sovereign, pink = uninhabited and purple = plain ignorance. The individual pieces can be rearranged to form different graphic patterns.
The World's Ten Tallest Mountains
2008
Graphite, acrylic, ink and colored pencil on paper
20 x 15 inches
The mountains are arranged tallest to tenth tallest, beginning with Everest in the upper right hand corner. The evenly-spaced stripes represent raises in elevation by 500 feet increments. Measurements begin at sea level. If measured from the ocean floor, Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest peak in the world, rising only 13,769 feet above sea level. Alternatively, the summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is 7,113 feet farther from the Earth's center than Everest due to the equatorial bulge. Yet Cimborazo rises only 20,561 feet above sea level and isn't even the highest peak of the Andes.
The World's Ten Longest Rivers
2008
Graphite, acrylic and gouache on paper
44 x 30 inches
The central circle of each river represents its place in the top ten with respect to length. The second ring represents its place within the top ten with respect to average discharge (other rivers not in the top ten have larger average discharge than some of the longest rivers). And the third ring ranks them by number of nations they pass through, again with respect to the top ten.
The colors come from traditional sporting placement ribbons: 1st=blue; 2nd=red; 3rd=white; 4th=yellow; 5th=green; 6th=pink; 7th=purple; 8th=brown; 9th=gray; 10th=light blue. Connecting lines show differences between the rankings, the outflow locations and alternate names for the rivers.
26 Pacific Island Nations Arranged by Population Density
2008
Graphite and acrylic on paper
27 x 26.5 inches
Manhattan currently has a population density of 70,595 people per square mile. Nauru, the most dense of the Pacific island nations, has 1,700 people per square mile. Each nation in the drawing is linked from the least dense (uninhabited Clipperton Island) to the most dense (Nauru) by the white lines. Population density was calculated using the CIA World Factbook online database. A single sentence states a fact for each nation, covering exports, history, drug use, etc.
Flags for Undiscovered Nations
2008, ongoing
Acrylic on paper
4.25 x 5.5 inches each
An ongoing series of imaginary flags. Colors and designs are derived from traditional flag patterns, but do not replicate any one flag currently in existence.