ABOUT THE JURIED SHOW
Botanical Art of the Sonoran Desert: Past & Present was conceived as a celebration of the long tradition of botanical art that would feature a wide array of historical art as well as works by contemporary botanical artists. The exhibit would also include a juried exhibition, and in the spring of 2012, an open call for entries for the exhibit was announced through the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA), the Art Institute of the Arizona Sonora Desert Musem (ASDM) and the Sonoran Desert Florilegium Program.
The exhibit call was for two-dimensional works of botanical art and illustration with a focus on the unique plants of the Sonoran Desert Region, an area that includes the southwestern third of Arizona, a small area of southeastern California, most of Baja California, and the western half of Sonora, Mexico. The map shown below further divides the Sonoran Desert into six regions. These subdivisions are based on the plant life that is characteristic of each region and were described in 1957 by the prominent plant ecologist, Forrest Shreve, in Vegetation of the Sonoran Desert.
Within these subdivisions are rich biotic communities that make the Sonoran Desert the most biologically diverse of north America's deserts. Habitats of the Sonoran Desert range from extremely hot, arid desert to semiarid tropical forests, from semidesert glassland to higher elevation coniferous forests, from chaparral to thornscrub.
Of the seventy-one works submitted, nineteen were selected by the jury for inclusion in the exhibit. The works include portrayals of several of the region's iconic cacti and wildflowers and also some lesser known plants.
