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Illustrated maps feature nooks and crannies of Knoxville

It's not the kind of map you use to navigate the city but it is a roadmap to what makes Knoxville, Knoxville. 

You've used a typical roadmap or at least Google Maps. The roads are clearly marked, you can find your destination and figure out a route.

A Knoxville artist sells maps that don't show you how to get somewhere but do show you what you may be missing.

"It is going to have the places that only the locals are going to know," Paris Woodhull said.

She creates her illustrated maps with an emphasis on the unusual places here.

"It's not going to just be downtown or the Sunsphere or the convention center, though it is going to include those things too," she said.

She interned at a place downtown on Jackson Avenue called The Happy Envelope.

"It was really popular to put illustrated maps on wedding invitations and I was so just taken by these maps and the owner was like why don't you try your hand at it? And I tried it and then I started obsessively drawing Knoxville," she remembered.

She's already illustrated maps of downtown Knoxville and north Knoxville.

Paris recently graduated from the University of Tennessee. That's on one map. She also went to high school at Fulton. That's featured too.

She is finding out more about the place where she grew up.

"It's just fun to see that it is growing and then also to discover places that I haven't been before," she said.

She just finished an illustrated map of South Knoxville

"I love to go to Honeybee Coffee. I draw there a lot. I love King Tut's. I've gone there growing up with their best Greek salad in all of Knoxville," she said. "There's places to go but there's also Ijams Nature Center. So it is really unlike any map where it has a lot of really cool landscapes and trails and fun things."

While she is the artist who puts pen to paper, Paris thinks of her maps as community projects.

"I start all of my maps with a social media post where I tell people what map I am thinking about doing and tell me all the nooks and crannies and places you are interested in," she said.

Then after she draws a map she posts it on social media.

"I'm like, hey, do you see something that's wrong? Do you see something that's missing? And then I'll Photoshop bits and pieces that I missed in there," she said.

The maps are not comprehensive. She can't include every business and landmark.

"I've had someone and they were like you forgot me. And I'm like I'll add you. I'm adding you now!"

She will soon add a map she calls 37919 that includes both Bearden and Sequoyah Hills. She is considering East Knoxville and branching out to other cities, maybe Chattanooga.

No matter what neighborhood or city she draws, she wants the people who live there to be part of the creative process.

"I kind of see it as a little bit of community building because it makes people feel like it's their home," she said.

Connect with Paris on social media to join the conversation about what to feature in her maps to reflect the spirit of Knoxville.

She offers her maps online but prefers you buy them at one of the many local shops that sell them.

Here is a complete list of places where her maps are available in store:

Rala
112 W. Jackson Ave
Knoxville, TN 37902

Knoxville Museum of Art
1050 World's Fair Park
Knoxville, TN 37916

Makers Donuts
804 Tyson Street
Knoxville, TN 37917

Bradley's
141 N. Peters Road
Knoxville, TN 37923

Fig and Company
5072 Kingston Pike
Knoxville, TN 37919

Click here to check out her website

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