“Trial Maps” begin as imaginary planetary surfaces as yet unseen by the human eye. As I work, they begin to look more like maps of places where we have lived and hiked over the past forty years. The maps, or what is left of them, have been battered by years of wear, especially when they have fallen into the hands of hikers who, like me, have stuffed them back into their packs without re-folding them properly. The maps respond to this casual treatment by taking on a life of their own. Their folds grow in importance as they become progressively less believable. The surfaces begin as accidents, as they do in nature. Shapes (geographic, geological, human, animal, fantastic) emerge and are emphasized in intuitive ways. Maplike symbols appear to authenticate imaginary places. I play with the contrast between the real and the imagined, the known and the unknown.