Maps and Ephemera

I love old maps and vintage ephemera. This love is reflected in my body of work over the last decade. I have been extremely fortunate to be able to take my love of collecting old maps and advertising ephemera as inspiration and use them to create successful and well collected artwork.

Around ten years ago I was given the opportunity to work with October Afternoon, an extremely popular brand of vintage-style papers at the time. At October Afternoon I was tasked to create authentic looking maps and advertising spreads for several of their lines. It was wonderful. Who would have thought that there was a need for such a niche of product? Thankfully, there definitely is, and my artwork became instantly popular and well collected.

I was working with October Afternoon while I was establishing my Lake House Studio. When I left October Afternoon I focused my creative attention on to collectible framed artwork, stationery, collectible postcards, and giftware.  It was at this time that I created several of my most memorable collections; my “The Big Apple” which celebrated 1950’s New York City and “Aloha State” which is my homage to my love of Hawaiiana, the kitschy Hawaiian art of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Eventually my illustration “Broadway Bound”, from “The Big Apple” collection, would be discovered by Tony® award-winning director Mary Zimmerman. Ms. Zimmerman and her team turned the illustration into the set design for her musical production of Leonard Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town” at Chicago’s premier Goodman Theater Albert Stage. Soon after the Goodman’s production, HBO commissioned me to create several title graphics, featuring maps and ephemera, for some of their shows.

Much of my work for Carta Bella Paper Co. involves designing highly realistic maps and ephemera for my collections. Several of my collections are exclusive series of state, city, and world maps. Throughout my collections you will find highly realistic pieces of ephemera mixed into collages. They include road maps, circus tickets, baseball tickets, stadium maps, menus, and much more. These pieces have become quite popular and well collected. Here is just a taste of what I have to offer.