The Map is Not the Territory
A commission, a deadline, and what the work taught me
It started with a phone call on a quiet afternoon…
As an artist, you learn to listen to out-of-the-blue enquiries with a hint of healthy scepticism -is this a serious project? Do they understand my process? But as the conversation with this potential client unfolded, the scepticism turned into a genuine connection. It turned out the design team weren’t just browsing; the company had already bought a print from my website. They knew my work, they trusted my hand, and they had identified four specific pieces that captured the palette and feel they were after for a new, large-scale commission.
The brief: a contemporary, 90cm square response to an 1866 map of Whiteley, Hampshire, for a specific venue. I had exactly one month.
The 1866 map of Whiteley, Hampshire
The finished artwork “The Map is Not the Territory’ ready for its new home.
Looking at a map of Whiteley from 160 years ago, you see the rural bones of a landscape that has since transformed into a thriving modern hub. My task wasn’t to trace the old boundaries - it was to feel them. I decided to crop the map, focusing on the geometric silhouettes of the old farmsteads and the organic clusters of the wooded areas. This became my scaffold, a structural composition based on pure shape.
Then I started painting. And that’s where it got hard.
As a teacher and creative coach, my philosophy is that true creativity comes from play, letting go of the outcome, and trusting the process. I always tell my students to embrace the messy middle. But this commission tested my own teaching to its limit. Because I was painting for a specific person and a specific place, I found it harder to ‘let go’ and work loosely. I was trying too hard.
Artist Jo Morley with her commissioned artwork
I kept telling myself: this is a good challenge to have. And then I put in the hours -literally. I found myself in the studio at 3am, working in the quiet stillness before the world woke up. I persevered through the ugly stages, layering, altering, and scumbling until contrasts, form, and depth finally started to emerge. It felt new, slightly uncomfortable, and like nothing I had ever done before.
Eventually, the painting reached its own conclusion. I titled it ‘The Map is Not the Territory’ — a reminder that while a map tells us where things were, the painting tells us how the place feels now.
Even after sharing it with friends, family, and my Studio Friday group, I felt a lingering apprehension about showing the client. I shouldn’t have worried. They were delighted, they even asked to keep my original cropped map reference to display alongside the painting, showing the journey from the 1866 inspiration to the final canvas.
It is always an honour when someone trusts me with their vision. This project reminded me that even when we are the teachers, the work still has plenty to teach us.