California Got Fat: A Century of Growth

Flash animation, geography, black and white, 2008

Jake C, a geography grad student, created this flash animation for a cartography class last fall. The animated map displays the population growth of California counties in twenty year intervals from 1900 to 2000. This map won first prize in the annual competition of the Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA). 

Click here to view a larger version. 

Jake's project inspired my drawing of a grizzled, anthropomorphic California slowly crawling across the desert while dragging a painfully stuffed belly. The bulging gut mainly represents Los Angeles, which, as you can see on the map, exploded from 11,000 people in 1880 to 2 million in 1950.

Drawing, pencil and colored pencil on paper, 5" x 8", 2009

If you come to this blog on a regular basis you are going to learn a thing or two.  

UPDATE: The drawing bears a slight resemblance to this photo of California's governor. 

Comments

[Carl W]

That animation is tight and so is the drawing. This blog lets me laugh, and learn! Way to go!