Maps are a constant presence in our daily lives, yet we seldom reflect on the fact that they are based on conventions and specific sets of codes. They are abstractions—diagrammatic representations that help us make sense of our world and orient ourselves within it. While they are indispensable tools, they are also profound reflections of human constructs: political, social, and deeply imaginary. Maps define boundaries and can be used to challenge them—re-mapping lost histories, invisible borders, or shifting ecologies.
Natasha Mayers, Toward a Town Map of Whitefield, oil paintstick on rag paper, 90 x 120 in.
At its core, the action of mapping is about locating oneself in space and setting boundaries. With this issue, we are curious about how the language and the idea of cartography inform your work. This can be interpreted literally—borrowing from cartographic conventions like aerial perspectives, abbreviated linear forms, and the interplay of text and image.
Title page of De Bello Belgico by Famiano Strada, 1647 (photo: Wikimedia Commons).
Mapping is also a powerful metaphor for giving spatial form to cognitive processes. We map journeys, relationships, memories, and thoughts. Whether charting external territories or internal realities, mapping is an attempt to understand where we are and where we are going.
Leonora Carrington, Map of Down Below, ink on paper, 12 3/4 x 9 7/8 in. (32.4 x 25.1 cm), c. 1941, Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Margaret Fisher (photo: Harvard Art Museums).
Deadline: 1 September 2026.
Guidelines for the UMVA Members’ Showcase:
We invite members of the Union of Maine Visual Artists to participate in the Showcase (to become a member, click here).
- For the Mapping issue, submit up to four JPEG or png images (NO TIFF files), approximately 2500 pixels on longest side, resolution 72dpi.
- Label each image file as follows: your last name_Number of Image_Title (with no spaces in the title). Please DO NOT put whole caption/credit in image file label, see image list/caption format below (if you are submitting for a group put your own last name in first).
- Include a numbered image list at the end of your statement or brief essay (600 words or less) in Word doc. format, NOT a PDF.
- Image list/caption format: create a list that is numbered to match the number in your image file label that includes the following in this order: Artist’s Name, Title of Work, medium, size (example: 9 x 12 in.), date (optional), photo credit (example: photo: Ansel Adams) if not included we assume it is courtesy of the artist. Example: Unknown Artist, Untitled, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in., 2000 (photo: Ansel Adams).
- Label your document file names: Last Name_Title.
- Please wait until all of your material is compiled to submit.
Put “Mapping” in the subject line and submit by email to umvalistings@gmail.com by the 1 September 2026 deadline. MAJ will limit the Members’ Showcase section to UMVA members who have not been published in the past year.
Do not send preformatted visual essays. Our editors will lay out text and images submitted using the guidelines above.
It is the MAJ’s policy to request and publish image credits. We will not publish images for which the contributor does not have the right to publish. However, it is to be assumed that any uncredited or unlabeled images are contributing artists’ own images. By submitting to the MAJ, you are acknowledging respect for these policies.
Full view of the image at top: François Chauveau (attrib.) La Carte de Tendre (The Map of Tender), 1656 (photo: Wikimedia Commons).