Cartographic Art
Maps You Can Touch
Laser-cut, textured, and built to hold — so you can put yourself in the shoes of their inhabitants
Laser-cut, textured, and built to hold — so you can put yourself in the shoes of their inhabitants
A quick map of the city of San Francisco, California. Not the county, as Yerba Buena & Treasure Island aren't here.
I love this mountain in the sea, right out my bedroom window. Iconic. A state park. A piece of California history, both fascinating and often morbid. Yet it still stands at the entrance to the Golden Gate, lapped by waves and crisped by the summer sun.
178 individual pieces across seventeen elevation layers. Named trails, points of interest including Vollmer and Wildcat peaks, the Redwood Valley Railway, Tilden Little Farm, golf course, and Merry-Go-Round. Major waterways flow through Wildcat Canyon past Lake Anza and Jewel Lake. The lighter wood represents the 2,079-acre park itself, while engraved dark areas show adjacent cities and parkland.
The site of an ecological field research trip taken by a loved one. Topography of the bay with the location of some large charismatic fauna sightings catalogued.
A city, isolated in the desert, cradled by mountain ranges, and guarded by a bisected national park. The Arizona National Scenic Trail is emphasized with larger dots, tracing its path from Rincon Valley through the Rincon Mountains, past Mica Mountain, through Redington Pass, up the Santa Catalina Mountains toward Mt. Lemmon, and down Oracle Ridge.
My second Tucson map, done several years after the first. This version reflects the city more directly — parks, bike paths, coffee shops, the CAP aqueduct, and personal landmarks including our favorite restaurants and wedding venue.
An architectural map created as a gift for the college's newly-inaugurated president. Made as an alumna, depicting the campus from a student's perspective — highlighting pathways, gathering spaces, and campus nicknames familiar to those who lived there.
SoCal, stretching from Los Angeles to San Diego and the Channel Islands to Joshua Tree. Negative-space text and textural patterns represent regional characteristics. The San Andreas fault line runs through the Transverse Ranges, intersecting major transportation corridors — Tejon, Cajon, and San Gorgonio passes — into the Los Angeles basin.
A gift for someone from Thailand who missed home.
When my mom read me books, I'd ignore the story and study the maps in the preface. As a teenager, I spent hours drawing fantasy worlds, imagining how rivers and mountains shaped the communities within them.
Now I combine GIS software with laser cutting to make those imaginary worlds real — textured, tactile pieces about actual places you can hold up to your eyes.