In recent years, I’ve had a lot of requests for printable version of “my map.” I’ve made hundreds of maps but since the digital map I made of Los Angeles County has been viewed over a million times, I have to assume that that’s the one most people are talking about.
Of course, people who really know my work also know that I’ve made hundreds of maps and that most are drawn in ink, painted in oil paint or watercolor, or some combination of materials (including correctional fluid). I’ve sold some of those original and have offered prints through various sources.
Part of the reason I draw and paint most maps is that I am not technically savvy. I learned to program in Basic, Pascal, and Fortran. My first social network was ISCA BBS. The last computer game I played was Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992). Instead of watching television programs, I mostly listen to radio dramas from the 1940s and ’50s.
However, people keep asking for maps and — after much frustration and hair-pulling — I’ve made these digital neighborhood and community maps available on mugs, stickers, wall hangings, hooded sweatshirts, &c. You can buy prints and canvas reproductions HERE. For merchandise like buttons, tapestries, laptop cases, &c, click HERE.
Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, essayist, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking paid writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in generating advertorials, cranking out clickbait, or laboring away in a listicle mill “for exposure.”
Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft Contemporary, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, CurbedLA, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA?, at Emerson College, and the University of Southern California.
Brightwell is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Ameba, Duolingo, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Mubi, and Twitter.
