Nap Maps

Since beginning my Artist Residency in Motherhood, the length of my daughter's naps have determined my 'studio time'. I've become very efficient at planning and executing manageable tasks within these short windows of opportunity. One of the projects I have been working on is called 'nap maps,' and refers to an earlier phase in her sleep cycles, when the only way I could get her to nap was to push her in the pram around and around our local neighbourhood, sometimes for hours at a time. During these long walks, I dreamt up the idea of a 'nap map,' wondering how I could represent the lines of these routes in an interesting visual form. I started by thinking about quilting the lines of the nap routes; the link between quilting and blankets seemed appropriate! However, I've actually started by rendering the maps through trace monoprints. I like the fact that I have to 'trace' the lines without seeing the resulting marks until I peel back the paper: it feels more like the trudging, 'blind' mode of line-tracing that I engaged in when plodding up and down the pavements with the pram. I have chosen to represent the maps in a circular frame, because it reminds me of early modern representations of cosmic spheres and world maps. Unlike early modern maps, however, which sought to showcase the expanding knowledge of the world through ingenious new cartographic techniques, my little roundels represent my own shrinking spheres of activity. They also remind me of Robert Hooke's innovative prints representing views down the microscope in his publication, Micrographia. Playing with scale and representative strategies makes the very familiar seem curious and strange. Maybe my little spheres also look like strange bacterial growths in petri dishes. Or lunar charts. Alas, my daughter has woken up now, so I must leave my thoughts there.