In addition to my work in mathematics education , I am also an artist and musician. My current projects are watercolor maps of places that are important to the people important to me, or of places/regions that I am unfamiliar with. I began creating the maps in Winter of 2012. One day, I was listening to news about Syria and realized I didn’t know exactly where Syria was. I did not have a concrete geographic image in my mind of the places so often spoke of on the radio. I decided to create a map, hoping that the process of creation would help solidify in my mind the intricate borders and shapes of the nations around the world.