STORY BEHIND THE ART OF JOAN MCGANN
Weird, Wild, & Wonderful
Second New York Botanical Garden Triennial Exhibition
2014 - 2016
Crested Saguaro
Carnegiea gigantea
The saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is a regal and iconic cactus specimen whose habitat is the Sonoran Desert, where I live. In fact, it is native only to a small portion of the Sonoran Desert and is a protected species. In Tucson, there are two Saguaro National Park sites where the density of these giant cacti is remarkable and only two dozen of them are crested.
It is an unusual, weird, wild and wonderful plant even in its most common form, and familiar to many around the world. Rarely, but on occasion, the growing tip of the saguaro will produce a fan-like form, called a crest or cristate. Biologists disagree as to why some grow this unusual form. Some speculate it is due to a genetic mutation while others say it is a result of a lightning strike or freeze damage. So for me, finding a rare crested one to draw made it all the more appealing to me. I saw this particular one a few yards off the roadside north of Tucson. It is extremely tall so photographing it was really the only way to reference it.
Another reason for choosing the crested saguaro was my interest in drawing cacti. I have been drawing cactus specimens for years. They are very weird and wild to many an onlooker!
I often use pen and ink in my drawings. The medium lends itself to drawing the thousands of spines as well as the smooth body of the plant. I wanted to show all the unusual curves and connections that are seen in the crest. To do that I had to draw a fairly large piece - the crested top of this particular saguaro specimen was about four feet in width and height maybe twenty-five to thirty feet.
Amateur naturalists have formed the “Crested Saguaro Society”, whose mission is to locate and document these beautiful formations.
I also considered drawing a lithops for this exhibition, sometimes called a “living stone”. I have a few growing in my window at home. However, I preferred to draw something native to my area.
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Read more about this artist's work: 16th Annual International