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Mapping it out Local artist has flair for cartography
Chris travels the country selling his maps at juried art shows. His maps can be found locally at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
CHRIS SMITH PHOTO
STORY BY SCOTT AKANEWICH
smith map studio Hand Drawn Maps 324 Sarah’s Lane, Liberty (512) 825-1511 www.SmithMapStudio.com 48
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pon entering the Liberty Hill home of Chris Smith, it doesn’t take long for visitors to feast their eyes on a masterpiece. “Battlefield Texas” is an enormous map depicting the Lone Star State in the days of the Republic of Texas and was the first of over 60 maps Smith has designed and produced since becoming a full-time artist in 2009. However, it’s no ordinary map. There is virtually not a single inch of unoccupied space of the canvas, as the map not only lays out Texas how it was drawn up back then, but features countless facts about the many conflicts that took place in the state and all of the participants – including Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, Santa Anna and many others in a work that took two years to finish. In the space where the Gulf of Mexico is lies an armada of ships that served in the Texas Navy at the time, further augmenting the completeness of the work from a historical standpoint. The amount of information and illustrations across the entire map makes it as educational as it is stunning in bringing history to life. Not bad for something that was never even meant to be a map at all. “At first, I set out to create a Risk-like game based on Texas,” said Smith, an Austin native who moved to Liberty Hill with his family six years ago. “I played that game way too much as a kid.” Hill But, after creating the map and doing all the extensive research required, Smith decided to change directions with what he was aiming for, he said. “I realized it would just take a lot more to actually produce a board game, as
