About the Artist

I’m Isaac

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Do you find yourself poring over old maps when you think no one is looking? I certainly do. Like most of you, I grew up spending hours on Google Maps exploring insanely remote places and trying to find tiny islands. Needless to say, the world is awesome.

My maps are different. Sure, you can look online and find 99% accurate maps that are perfectly vectorized and whatever. But where is the magic in that? Give me a map that is raw and wriggling. Something that has real soul put into it. Something that takes me, not just to the places depicted, to other worlds, different times.

That’s the goal. When you take a gander at my maps, I hope you feel something. I hope you hear a babbling brook wandering through a far green valley. I hope you can almost smell the crisp air passing over thick forests and towering mountains. I hope these maps take you away. Away to somewhere simpler. A land where people enjoy the little things and delight in the wholesome.

Anyway, I think you will enjoy these maps. They were an absolute joy to draw.

 

Other things about me:

My name is Isaac Christian Dushku. I hail from the wild village of Centerville, Utah. You haven’t heard of it? That is no small coincidence. It has been long protected, shielded even, from the rest of the world.

I started my map making journey at the beginning of the fateful year 2020 with a small map of Utah.

Map of Utah Lord of the Rings style

While this map doesn’t win any accuracy awards, it struck a chord with some folks when I posted it on facebook. Within a few days, I had many requests to draw other states. School was winding down and I found myself drawing as much as I possibly could. Someone suggested I draw Washington, so I got to work and did it. When it was completed I reached out to the person who suggested it and never heard back from them.

 

That’s when I figured I should get a website. Enough of this facebook marketplace stuff with a million “is this still available” messages that, when replied to, have no response. Thus LordofMaps.com was born.

It was no longer possible for me to draw casually on the side and I had to jump in. I moved into my parents basement and started drawing full time.

Isaac Dushku

Almost 4 years have passed since that fateful March. Since then, I have completed over 80 maps and two books. I’ve worked with incredible artists, had major hurdles and spectacular failures. It has been an extremely valuable adventure.

 

But that’s not all! Nor is it the coolest thing I’ve been a part of. The same month I started Lord of Maps, I found out my wife was pregnant with our little girl. She has been the greatest joy of my life…. Until 2.5  years later her little sister came a long. Now I have two greatest joys of my life.

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I'm married to a pretty incredible lady (Don't ask me how I did it). She was born and raised in South Korea, lived in India, moved to Alabama and went to college in Idaho, served a mission in Hawaii, then landed back in Utah where she met me! I too served my mission in Hawaii, so we hit it off really easily talking story and sharing our love of those incredible people. 

AND! She is an incredible artist who has helped me on numerous maps.

Isaac dushku and Sumin hwangWe live in Woods Cross, Utah (not far from the fabled Centerville) and enjoy the freezing winters and blistering summers of this mountain land.