But what have you been up to?

Yeah, so the Wild World map, which I'm happy to talk about in more detail at some point, that was a three-year project which took a lot out of me.

It started as my pandemic project and then it actually exceeded the lockdowns and ended up being finished in 2023.

That map and the one prior to it were just such all-encompassing projects and over the years I really felt I'd spent so much time stuck in my studio researching and drawing these vastly detailed cartographic projects, but always I was representing the world from afar.

And so what I really wanted to do next was to get a lot more local.

So to start a series of smaller, more locally focused maps that were of places I'd actually been, that I'd had that communion with.

So yeah, to start with, I began a map of Kenya because in 2024, after Wild World, I went on a trip I'd always dreamed of and saw the most extraordinary wildlife in East Africa.

when you uh when you're designing the maps who have you got in mind as your as your customer the person who are you drawing them for

Here he explains how maps can be art indeed.

There are many debates about maps as art, whether or not all maps are art.

I believe probably that they are, as long as they're made by humans.

But at the same time, yes, mine are covered in illustrations and all drawn by hand with colored pencil and pen.

And that is incredibly rare in mapmaking these days, although perhaps it's become more popular as well.

I certainly think in this age of AI, there's more people embracing maps At least I hope.

There are more people embracing the arts that are made by hand with traditional materials.

So tell us about this project and what it means to you.