The Daily Render by Nikolas R. Schiller » Sold

Preview Video of the 2010 Cartographic Calendar [Color Edition]

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:15:49 +0000

Today I received the two calendars I ordered last week. I decided to make this short video to show prospective buyers what the calendar looks like when printed out. In the video above I simply hang the calendar on the wall and flipped through each month of the Color Edition of my 2010 Cartographic Calendar. Its a somewhat simple method of showing the maps in the calendar, but I think it helps to visualize what a 17″ x 11″ calendar would look like on your wall.

Bright Felon: Autobiography And Cities By Kazim Ali Is Now Available

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:52:21 +0000

This groundbreaking, trans-genre work—part detective story, part literary memoir, part imagined past—is intensely autobiographical and confessional. Proceeding sentence by sentence, city by city, and backwards in time, poet and essayist Kazim Ali details the struggle of coming of age between cultures, overcoming personal and family strictures to talk about private affairs and secrets long held. The text is comprised of sentences that alternate in time, ranging from discursive essay to memoir to prose poetry. Art, history, politics, geography, love, sexuality, writing, and religion, and the role silence plays in each, are its interwoven themes. Bright Felon is literally “autobiography” because the text itself becomes a form of writing the life, revealing secrets, and then, amid the shards and fragments of experience, dealing with the aftermath of such revelations. Bright Felon offers a new and active form of autobiography alongside such texts as Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, Lyn Hejinian’s My Life, and Etel Adnan’s In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country.

From the Book:

You wouldn’t think I would have wanted a beacon. Rather to find myself in the wilderness on my own.

But I did, I always did.

Could there have been someone else like me, not one thing not another, barely able to choose.

A poet, a Muslim, and of a particular persuasion.

When I knew someone like me I barely knew him and we couldn’t bring ourselves to speak of the one thing we needed to speak to each other about.

Silence stretched between us taut as sin.

In 2004 I moved with Marco down the river to Beacon, NY.

Named for the signal fires placed on top of each mountain in chain running from New York City to Albany.

So if either city fell to the British the insurgents at the other end would know about it.

I placed signal fires up and down each street, so anxious I was to belong somewhere.

—From the chapter “Beacon”

Endorsements:

“Bright Felon will steal your heart and outrage your poetics. Part memoir, part trip book, part literary discourse, there is in it an urgent sense of a life lived in words. The tale is one of both innocence and experience. Rigorous, romantic, experimental, true, and yet mysterious, it is a book for the ages.” —Laura Moriarty, author of A Semblance: Selected and New Poems, 1975–2007

“Kazim Ali writes in Bright Felon a prose shaped by the various cities he has lived and loved in. This is a book that is so much more than memoir or autobiography. It is embodied and questioning and it carries through its politics a grace and generosity. —Juliana Spahr, author of Fuck You, Aloha, I Love You

KAZIM ALI is the author of two books of poetry, The Far Mosque (2004) and The Fortieth Day (2008). He is an assistant professor of creative writing at Oberlin College and teaches in the low-residency MFA program of the University of Southern Maine. He is one of the founding editors of Nightboat Books.

The text above was copied from the website of book distributor, University Press of New England

Below is a detail from my map Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridge Quilt, which is featured on the cover of the book:

Participating in my Monthly Maps Sale in 3 Easy Steps

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 03:08:58 +0000

Starting earlier this month those who are subscribed to my listserv were given the opportunity to purchase a map at the reasonable price of $100. I felt this was a great way to cheaply obtain the different maps I have created over the years. Since I have hundreds of maps to choose from, this monthly opportunity will last for years and ultimately become a great way to collect my maps.

Previously I used to point people to my ImageKind Store, but I wasn’t pleased with some of the cheap papers the maps were printed on, and have chosen to remove the middle man, so to speak, and have all the map purchases go directly through me. This way I can control the materials the maps are printed on, personally sign each map, and ensure the quality for each map that is produced.

For the month of August, the first Monthly Map, I chose was Washington Monument Quilt (above), which I first rendered on January 31st, 2006. Since the area around the Washington Monument was redacted in the 2005 USGS aerial photography, I felt it was a worthwhile piece to start with.

After sending out my initial e-mail about the offering, I had a friend contact me about purchasing the map and decided to document some of the steps involved in the process of ordering the maps through me….

Photo of the tube the map is shipped inside of.

Step One – Payment

You can either contact me about sending cash or a check or you can quickly & easily pay the $100 by credit card on my PayPal merchant account page. After I receive the payment, I will need your mailing address if you want the map mailed to you. If you live in Washington, DC, I can either mail it to you or meet you in person and hand-deliver the map. I’ve found it easiest to go through PayPal because it’s quick and safe.

Photo of the rolled up map next to the shipping tube

Step Two – Printing

After I receive payment, I send the map to the printer. For the time being, my Monthly Map Sale is featuring 30″ x 20″ prints on Kodak PerfectTouch Paper. Throughout the last 5 years I’ve had the best results on this medium, both in quality of colors and durability of the paper. It’s also the same medium I used when I donated 8 maps to the Library of Congress in 2006. In about 3 days or less, I receive confirmation that the map has been printed and is in transit to me or you.

Photo of unrolled map of Washington Monument Quilt

Step Three – Shipping

I can have the map shipped directly to you as well (without signature, date, or label) for faster turnaround or I can have it shipped to my house. After the map arrives, I remove it from the shipping tube (above), carefully flip it over, label the name of the map, label the date it was originally rendered, label the date it was printed, and sign the map (below).

After this, I roll the map back up into the tube, add a little extra padding to ensure the map will not be damaged, then I bring it to the post office. Three days later it should be delivered to your mailbox. Or if the map is purchased locally, we can meet up and exchange the map in person.

Photo of the label, date, and partial signature

THATS IT! I think the whole process is pretty simple. In all this process takes about one or two weeks depending on the speed at which the payment is received and how long it takes for the map to be printed and shipped.

I think the hardest part of it all will be choosing which map to offer each month! Please contact me if you are interested in purchasing this month’s map or have suggestions for future Monthly Map offerings.

Ordered Today: New York Public Library Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 03:11:31 +0000

In conjunction with my upcoming presentation at next month’s meeting of the New York Map Society, I decided to order a copy of the map and will be donating it to the Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division at the New York Public Library. It will printed out quite large at 60″ x 40″ on HahnemÃ¼hle Fine Art Pearl 285gsm paper and should be a splendid addition to their permanent collection.

My Blaeu map to be featured in an upcoming magazine advertisement

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:41:08 +0000

Today I mailed a copy of one of my favorite maps to a company that intends on using the map for an upcoming advertisement. I can’t post too many details until the advertisement has been completed, but I intend on posting the photos when they become available. It should look awesome :-)

In the Map Collections of the British Library and..

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:03:20 +0000

I am pleased to announce that my 2008 Urban America Calendar is on it’s way to the Map Collections at the British Libray. Last week the Map and Imagery Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara purchased a copy of the 2008 California Calendar. All in all, I am very pleased with how receptive people have been to the calendars.

2008 Washington, DC Area Calendar

Nikolas Schiller — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:42:31 +0000

Below are the months of the calendar featuring places around the Washington, DC metropolitan area and links to their respective entries so that you can see the map’s full size. Read more about the other calendars here.

Cover

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Example:

Click here to view the 2008 California Calendar
Click here to view the 2008 Urban America Calendar

Related to the cover:

2008 Urban America Calendar

Nikolas Schiller — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:43:11 +0000

Below are the months of the calendar featuring cities around the United States and links to their respective entries so that you can see the map’s full size. Read more about the other calendars here.

Cover

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Click here to view the 2008 California Calendar

2008 California Calendar

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:41:13 +0000

April 2008_____

As of January 1st, the calendar is no longer available for sale on-line. A big thank you to those who purchased copies!

A viewable copy of the calendar is in the permanent holdings of the Map and Imagery Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A couple weeks ago I came up with the idea to make a calendar to sell for the holiday season. As someone who doesn’t participate much in the holiday season, I figured since I won’t be buying many gifts, why not sell something? Calendars are useful because everyone should have one, and they make an easy gift to give. Since then I’ve been ruminating on how to design the calendar. Should it be just America? DC? Specific states? Well, I decided to make 3 different calendars this season- one of Washington, DC, one of America, and one of California. I could theoretically do other states, but there would overlap in the maps shown, as in, I have over 12 maps of some states, but some are just Quilt Projection variations of the same place. Next year I will have enough for New York, Texas, and maybe Missouri.

Earlier this year I found the unique antique Zodiac which I feel makes the perfect cover. There is something special about it that I think transcends the utility of the calendar itself. It’s probably because the Zodiac can be used in 2009, just like how it could have been used in 1544. But beyond that its like I appreciate the Zodiac because I discovered it on my own and developed it into something new (and newer and newer and newer). I’ve decided to have the Zodiac as the standarized front page for all three of the calendars and use the margins for the calendar’s credits. Since I had so many maps of California on my computer, I decided to start there. Next will be populous cities America, and finally Washington, DC. I will put them on to my on-line store when they are all finished!

To make the calendar unique I decided to not show the full-sized maps like they are shown on my website. Normally you see the full-sized map first then when you click on more you are brought to the map’s details & center. However these calendars only feature the map’s respective details & centers, not the full-sized map.

Below are the months of the calendar and links to their respective entries so that you can see the map’s full size.

Cover

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Click here to view the 2008 Urban America Calendar
Click here to view the 2008 Washington, DC Calendar

Pentagon Quilt #3

Nikolas Schiller — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 00:24:58 +0000

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In light of the album cover, I decided to make a few more maps of the Pentagon. Using new imagery taken in September of 2005 by Aerial Express and released by the USGS at 0.5 meters (approximately 1.6-foot). The first rendered was a botch. Somehow when I was changing the design around I messed up and created an imperfect map, which I prefer not to publish. Howerver, I was able to sample it to make a derivative tessellation that I used for this map.

View the Google Map of the Pentagon

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Related Maps:

my on-line store is now operational

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:09:07 +0000

Click on the image above to be taken to my Geospatial Art On-Line Store.Â There are about 200 maps in the store right now!

I’ve literally waited for years for a company like this to come along and I’m really excited about how successful the on-line store will ultimately be. It works similar to the way Cafe Press operates but instead of branding various products ImageKind fills the void for print on demand artwork.

Imagekind allows artists to upload their digital art files and set the price mark-up to their satisfaction. Customers pick out which map they want, choose the final print size, paper quality, mat, and frame. Basically, it’s a one stop shop for my artwork.

Before I’d have to wait for the customers come to me (and given my website’s hidden nature, customers were only people I’ve met in person), have them choose the map they’d want, upload it, order it, wait for it to arrive, contact the customer, meet with the customer and/or mail the print. A process that would take about 3 weeks per map. Now it’s all automated and quite streamlined. Best of all, my maps can be printed quite large at 60″ by 40″ at a reasonable price!

What I’ve been working on this last week is populating my on-line store with the hundreds of maps I’ve made in the last few years. Starting in June of 2006 I began to save my maps at their original size (most at 18,000×12,000) and at their half size (usually 9,000 x 6,000) in jpeg format. I started to do this because Kodak had a file size limit for their on-line store. Yet in order to populate my Imagekind storefront with older maps, I need to open them up again, which takes about 30 minutes each, and reduce their size so I can upload them to my store. Once uploaded, I then have to add some information about the map in the store. I decided to simply hotlink a graphic from my website to store so customers can see a detail of the map and have the option of viewing the details currently on my website. All in all, it takes quite a bit of time to add each map to the store, but I’m doing it, albeit slowly.

There are some general worries I have about the store. First and foremost is that what I’ve kept in limited editions is now available in unlimited quantities. This is the commoditification of my art, as in, now it’s about being a product instead of a hard to find piece of art. I also lose the ability to know where my art is going. Before I’d know exactly who was buying what, and now I just know that I sold a map, with little additional information. Further, I don’t know the quality controls in place. They have a 30 day money back guarantee, but what I’m worried about the most is if the prints at 60″ x 40″ look pixilated or not. 9,000 x 6,000 printed at 60″ x 40″ yields a print at 150 DPI, when it could be printed at 300 DPI if I were to upload the source files instead of their reduced size versions. Lastly, there is nothing stopping someone from ordering a print, scanning it, then refunding it. But ultimately this is what I have to deal with and I’m okay with it because now people around the world can purchase my maps quickly and easily.

Regardless, I’m very excited about the store. So, dear reader, what are you waiting for? Go check out the store! I’d love your feedback.

Woodley Park Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 23:08:37 +0000

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View the Google Map of Woodley Park in Washington, DC.

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American University Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:46:15 +0000

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View the Google Map of American University in Washington, DC.

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Georgetown University Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Wed, 10 May 2006 14:49:47 +0000

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View the Google Map of the Georgetown University Campus

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RFK Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 04 May 2006 13:05:59 +0000

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View the Google Map of RFK Stadium in Washington, DC

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C.I.A. Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 13:04:55 +0000

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View the Google Map of the Central Intelligence Agency

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Pittsburgh Quilt #3

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 13:50:30 +0000

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View the Google Map of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Pittsburgh Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 13:45:44 +0000

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View the Google Map of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Pittsburgh Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 13:36:03 +0000

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So I made 5 different maps of Pittsburgh and when I was post-processing them I discovered that 2 of the maps were not perfect. I found that a seam was off by a few pixels and I find this to be unacceptable, so I deleted the maps. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it’s the first time it’s happened when I was making a series.

According to the meta-data, the aerial photography was taken on April 5th, 2005, processed in May of 2005, and released in October of 2005. The source spatial resolution is .3 meters per pixel, which gives a lot of detail.

View the Google Map of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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Eastern Market Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:43:56 +0000

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View the Google Map of Eastern Market

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Union Station Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 20:16:58 +0000

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View the Google Map of the Washington, DC’s Union Station

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Catholic University Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:57:47 +0000

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So I made a Star of David with one of the most revered Catholic churches in America, “Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.”

Check the details… View the Google Map of Catholic University

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Atlanta Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:02:37 +0000

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I am making a series of maps for downtown Atlanta.

View the Google Map of Atlanta, Georgia
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Related Georgia Entries:

Related Diamond Quilt Projection Maps:

Seattle Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:14:32 +0000

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This map is the second map of downtown Seattle, Washington.

View downtown Seattle on Google Maps

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Washington Monument Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 13:31:45 +0000

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I think I am going to start a special category dedicated to only monuments. I have multiple renderings now of the Saint Louis Arch, the Lincoln Memorial, and now the Washington Monument…. I also have schools as well to add. hmmmmm.

This map features imagery of the Washington Monument taken in 2003 and plotted on the Hexagon Quilt Projection.

This map was my featured Monthly Map for August 2009

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Related Hexagon Quilt Projection Maps:

Related National Mall Entries:

Denver Quilt #2

Nikolas Schiller — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:38:18 +0000

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After looking through my archives, it appears that I never put the first Denver Quilt online! I know I have a copy of it in my iPhoto repository (I keep the final versions of my maps there so I can, at few clicks of a mouse, order prints on demand), but I am surprised that I never posted anything about it. I remember that it was a 2 seamed quilt because that was all that I knew how to make at the time! I also believe I made a Denver Mandala as well, so it looks like I have some searching to do in my archives and some processing as well!

I remade the Denver source imagery for this map and oddly I found that I already had two versions saved, but both were not perfect squares (as mentioned before). This version uses my favorite quilt projection and it turned out decently.

I only wish that I would have used slightly less light or post-processed the map (adjusting for contrast) to make it slightly darker. I must say that getting the lighting right is one of the hardest, but most crucial aspects to making these maps. Light is a destructive force because once the imagery has been sufficiently bleached in a scene, the post-processing can only regain so much of what was lost in tone and contrast.

Up next I have a slew of maps from Philly! I have one that finished rendering this morning that I have to process this evening. And there is also another one being rendered right now. I made 4 different tessellations of the source imagery of Philly, so I expect there to be quite a bit of variety in the end. Normally I don’t make multiple tessellations with the source imagery, and instead rely on one tessellation for each specific geographic location. There are some exceptions, but this series is sure to end up rather interesting.

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Houston Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:20:45 +0000

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Like Providence, I have yet to visit downtown Houston, however I can still manipulate the city to some degree. Today’s degree is to the tune of about 60 :-) 360 divided by 60 equals 6 (which equals 3 lines of symmetry which I call “seams” of the quilt) and judging by my last quilts, I’ve found this number to be my favorite degree of manipulation.

So far I’ve made about 39 different quilts (multi-planar maps), and I think it is about time to begin the subdivision of the quilt project into the number seams each quilt has. This means I have to create a sub-category for each number of seams, and then go back through every blog entry and assign each quilt to it’s respective category. This will allow a casual visitor to this site the ability to look at all of the quilts at once or by each respective number of seams.

Starting at 2 seams, like the Ivan Memory (the first quilt) and Beverly Hills Quilt #3, then to 3 seams, like today’s quilt, and then quilts that have greater than 4 seams. This categorization of the quilt project will be helpful in the long run because it will show the ways the geographic tessellations react when reflected multiple times and more importantly it will help organize what has been my favorite projection of 2005.

As for Houston Quilt, the imagery is from 2002 from the USGS (of course!) and I modified the imagery in such a way that the center of the tessellation is Highway 45 and the high-rise buildings of downtown Houston surround it.

The drawback of this imagery, similar to my Denver imagery, is that the aerial photograph was taken in the afternoon and due to the angle of illumination, the shadows obscure much of the ground. Yet this can also be a nice aspect too because the shadows also reflect and make the rendering special in their own way.

I’d rather have the photograph taken from nadir (straight above) at noon on cloudless, sunny day (this eliminates shadows and distortion at the center of the scene). But of course that would be too easy right? :-)

The other drawback is that the imagery itself is somewhat devoid of colors. Granted the sensors did pick up colors, but they are not very vibrant. When looking at the map above it almost appears to be black & white, but when you look at the details you can see some color.

Maybe I should go in and modify the imagery again and add color? In the past, the closest I’ve gotten to doing that was embedding my name into the imagery, and that wasn’t that special. The Boston imagery is still some of my favorite imagery because of the color variations and the good news it that I also downloaded imagery of downtown Houston from 2004 which has an interesting patch of different colored imagery in. When tessellated, this imagery will add that colorful dimension this map currently lacks. First I have to prepare the imagery and I think I might just make another map using the Houston imagery. I was thinking of maybe a 2 seamed map or should it be 4? I’ll find out soon!

==Update==
I ultimately used the geometric shape instead of the lines of symmetry for my naming convention.

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Related Texas Entries:

Related Hexagon Quilt Projection Entries:

GWU Quilt #4

Nikolas Schiller — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 04:26:23 +0000

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4 different maps in this series, and I must say I’m very happy with it.

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Dupont Circle Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 12:32:59 +0000

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I used one of the smallest tessellations yet to make this. The source imagery of the tiled Dupont Circle was only 2,600 pixels, but I made the right calculations to keep spatial resolution very similar the final product the same as the source (I counted how many times I saw the full tiled go across and multipled by 2,600). I like how it turned out, but I wish there was more merging of the circle itself, as in the circle itself would become a larger circle around the center. Up next, I am going to make one using nothing but imagery of GWU.

Related Ward 2 Entries:
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Ball of Destruction

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:00:30 +0000

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Ball of Destruction

I decided to use Bryce’s side program, Daz Studio, to manipulate the “Victoria” model to create this rendering. With Bryce 5.5, you can click on an icon that brings you to the Studio where you can import complex models (aka posers) and manipulate their poses, and once finished moving their body parts, you can import them back into the Bryce scene you are working on.

This is first time I’ve sat around and actually tried to figure out how to use this program. While it’s somewhat intuitive, (the neck bone is connected to the shoulder bone is connected to arm bone is connected to the hand bone is connected to the finger bone etc.) I had some trouble getting the body parts to move exactly to the positions I wanted them. It ended being a trial and error process, where I started with the vision of making her pray, but being unable to get the hands to move exactly how I wanted them, I ended up making her wrists touch nicely and I realized I could add an object to make them appear to be holding something.

When I imported her back, I realized that I wanted to continue using the hurricane motif that I’ve been using lately. The sphere I placed in her hands is a NOAA satellite image of hurricane Katrina, the background to the left is the first derivative of the Superdome Quilt (aka the hurricane’s destruction), and on her body I used a USGS aerial photo of downtown Washington, DC, specifically featuring the White House.

I chose the White House because the inferred blame of the hurricane’s cause and aftermath lies squarely on those in the White House. I’d love to use the Capitol for a rendering (some blame goes there as well), but like the U.S. Naval Observatory, it’s visually redacted and doesn’t look that great when rendered.

Regardless, whenever I use the female model in my renderings, she has nearly always been of the aerial photograph of the White House. I guess this is because I’ve kept the notion alive in my head that she is supposed to be Mother Earth and all the power in the world is located there.

Up next I have new style of quilt in the pipeline. For the last 12 hours it’s been rendering and I am very excited about how it will turn out. Let’s just say I’m going to start using more than one fabric in my quilts!

View close-up detail of the face:

Related Miscellaneous Maps:

Superdome Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 13:06:54 +0000

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Superdome Quilt – Source Imagery from NOAA

Horrid beauty. Symmetry & balance in an area ravaged by my favorite & only subject, Mother Nature.

Like the recent Boston renderings, the colors contained in the source imagery make this image stand out considerably. From what I can tell from the NOAA website, the aerial photography used to make this rendering was taken in the afternoon on a mostly cloudy day. The spots of brightness in the rendering are places where there were holes in the clouds. The dark areas on the ground are the flooded locations. These flooded locations, even the source imagery, are really hard to decipher. Due to the time the photograph was taken and the moisture content in the air, the flooded areas lack some of the detail I was hoping to portray.

When modifying the imagery in Photoshop, I did a simple “auto-levels” to balance out the colors, and surprisingly this change in levels gave some extra clarity to the imagery. If you check out the colors of the source imagery, you know what I’m talking about. Yet, I wish that “auto-levels” in Photoshop had some magical powers that would make the waters in New Orleans go back to their original levels…

When I created the geographic tessellation in Photoshop, I placed the imagery in such a way that the very center of the tessellation was the New Orleans Superdome. I was unable to acquire imagery from NOAA that contained the entire damaged dome in one image (ie, only part of the Super Dome shows up), so you can see how the reflection connects the Super Dome together into a hurricane damaged clover leaf. This centralized geographic identifier makes for some stunning reflections at the center.

Like my earlier experiences using 1st and 2nd derivatives, I have decided to make a 1st derivative rendering using the 6,600 X 6,600 pixels at the center this rendering. I think it’s going to look gorgeous and should be ready sometime tomorrow.

Lastly, like Katrina Quilt & Abstract Katrina, I am putting this one up for sale and the proceeds will go to the disaster relief efforts….hmmm… something that just popped in my head… maybe I could use the money to buy time for a commercial that demands that FEMA director resign. I think that might be a better use of the funds…maybe not… Regardless, heads need to roll and if I am able to help this process, I think I’m helping the disaster relief efforts considerably.

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Mall Quilt

Nikolas Schiller — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 01:47:05 +0000

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love it!

…more about the first image above tomorrow…

==
So the white building near the center of rendering is the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service building. I’ve been to a few meetings there :)

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Sold the first print to Zachary Larnard at Arts on Foot on September 16th, 2006

DC Memory

Nikolas Schiller — Sun, 24 Apr 2005 01:50:22 +0000

Using the same revised templated used in “GWU Memory,” I made a new rendering of downtown DC. I think the coolest part of the rendering is the “bending” of the White House!

I must thank L’Enfant…

view rendering detail of the White House:

GWU Memory

Nikolas Schiller — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 17:19:10 +0000

I have finally created what I feel is a complete Mandala. Normally the renderings only have 2 axises of symmetry and this one has 4, making it my most sophisticated work yet. I’ve already sold my first copy! The process I used to create this rendering is going to be replicated and used for the “Lenz Project” and I am SO excited about how they’ll turn out!!!

=update=
This print was sold to Dr. Marie Price, Chair of the GWU Geography Department.

The Modern Geographer

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 15:55:11 +0000

This is my first draft of what I am calling “The Modern Geographer.” The background is a painting titled “The Geographer” by one of my favorite painters of all time, Johannes Vermeer. I scanned a picture I had of the painting and modified it to give it symmetry. I used a poser from one of my programs and mapped her body with the 2002 USGS aerial photography of the area around the White House in Washington, DC. I ended up rendering it at 8000X6000, but I realized that when I scanned the painting, I scanned it too large so that if you look closely you can actually see the RGB colors dots from the printer. I am going to rescan to the painting so I can downsample it slightly and make the colors a bit more richer. I’m still not sure where I should place the poser, or if I should include more posers, possible give her a globe to gaze at, she is a Modern Geographer afterall…

Related White House Entries:

Related Mother Earth Entries:

Star of Denver

Nikolas Schiller — Fri, 28 Jan 2005 03:01:24 +0000

Looks like I made another beautiful creation! Of course the 1200X800 pixels above do no justice for the original 20000X15000 pixels, but the way the aerial photograph was captured gives some beautiful symmetry. The straight grid streets line up nicely, and the shadows of the late day photograph make the buildings look larger than life. I already know who is getting the first print of this one :-)

===
There have been two prints of this map. The first was given to Joseph Kerski, Geographer at the USGS in the spring of 2005 and the second was sold during the fall of 2005 to a relative of former professor.

Star of the Middle East #2

Nikolas Schiller — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 03:03:44 +0000

This is my first redesign of the “star of..” series. I added two more rings and now it almost looks like a molecule! I think its absolutely gorgeous. I can’t wait to get it printed!!

Related Star Series Maps:

Related Miscellaneous Maps:

Star of Ganges River Delta

Nikolas Schiller — Sat, 13 Nov 2004 14:54:22 +0000

Currently on display at the George Washington University’s Geography Department.

DC Lenz #2

Nikolas Schiller — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 00:15:27 +0000

When I made this, I knew I made what I felt to be one of the most beautiful creations of my lifetime.

===Update 12/10/04===
Sold this print to my old professor Thomas Foggin

===Update 2/10/04===
Sold another copy of this print to my friend Adam Eidinger

===Update 3/14/07===
Featured in the Washington Post