Iran circles

I always keep coming back to my map drawings, usually involving a circle and a biro.

What is it? What do they mean? What do I want them to mean? Will they be seen as political, maybe I want it to be just seen as a circle on a piece of paper with lines and colours that also happens to be a map. But then politics comes into it, especially with war-torn, politically charged countries, countries I know nothing about. How could it be seen to be making a statement about that country? easily I guess as it's a map of that country, but what about that country?? that it has voids in it, holes in it, bullet holes? Maybe my meaning of my own work means nothing as I'm too close to it, or maybe it's everything cos that's all there is in an artwork, what the artist sees.

But this map was already chosen for me, I had the National Geographic magazine and in it was this map. I suppose it comes back to if you believe that it was pre-destined for me to find, or chosen for me so that I could find it and commit to making this drawing enough to finish it and put it on this blog?

Or is it just a biro circle (which in itself is pretty futile) on a map. Do we make art for ourselves, or for an audience, does it matter what other people say of it, how other people see it or use it? For surely as soon as it (anything whether it be art, music, literature etc..) leaves the author it starts to have a life of its own and enters the public domain.

tbc...