In 2019, my friend and colleague Nadine Wasserman traveled to Mauritius to join me on my Grown Up Gap Year for a week. We had a great time exploring Mahelbourg, climbing La Morne, and exploring tidal pools on black lava beaches.

It was also a time to just think and talk together, and we discovered our mutual interest in a project where people could explore places using maps by artists. When I returned home in 2020, we decided not to let our idea be only a vacation dream and got to work making Compass Roses: Maps by Artists a reality. The first collection of 20 maps was created in Pittsburgh as part of the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

We are now traveling the project. Our next collection of maps was created by April 2021 by 30 visual, literary, and performing artists in Albuquerque, New Mexico commissioned by the City’s Public Art Program. The exhibition is on view at the South Broadway Cultural Center April 22 - May 22, 2021 and the maps can be explored anytime.