The Culvert

The Culvert is the last of a series of immense structures that reroute the heretofore unnamed river to the city of Meridian. The Culvert quite literally steals the river, diverting to a massive underground pipe and directing it to the city. The roads and cars in the image demonstrate the immensity of the structure.

Drew McGrath_Culvert.jpg

Map of Meridian

I started taking a Sci Fi & Fantasy illustration class to give myself permission to explore some creative ideas unrelated to my current work. In this first assignment, I built a map of a fictional world revolving around a city called Meridian. The concept came from an idea I’ve had for a long time; of an isolationist city, walled off from the world, existing in a state of homeostasis. In this adaptation, the city sustains itself by diverting the nearby river to its own inhabitants. The world brings to mind themes of resource hoarding, classism, and what happens to isolationist societies when they begin to crack at the seams. I’ll be continuing to flesh out this concept as the class progresses.