Page 28 cactus

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Cactus Marker on cardboard 2007	Cactus among brush with street lamp See photo of scene Oil pastel & marker on cardboard	Cactus along fence line Marker on cardboard 2007
Yellow cactus Oil pastel & colored pencil on cardboard	Cactus	Cactus Oil pastel on cardboard
Cactus Oil pastel and pen on cardboard	Cactus Sharpie & colored pencil on cardboard 2007	Cactus Acrylic on thin paper
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Cactus	Cactus	Cactus
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Late 2006 to early summer 2007, I took 20,000 digital photographs of cactus. The 'cactus patch' is located along a fence line next to a creek 2 miles from my house. Surprisingly, the photographic work did not translate into much art. I was working on cardboard at the time, so these pieces are on cardboard. Cactus lives a raw and ugly life mangled anywhere it can grow. As cactus grows taller, it finally topples over. At first the fallen plants seem doomed, but in fact new roots grow when a cactus pad touches ground. So a fallen cactus is actually migrating to new soil. I saw amazing similarities between the rugged turmoil of cactus and life in modern cities. I came to love the cactus patch, but stopped going, realizing that one day it would be bulldozed so a dumpster could sit proudly behind a strip center. To stall the planet's doom, I took pieces of fallen cactus to the house and now have a small cactus patch of my own.

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