Psychedelic Cacti was developed during a drawing project while attending Kent State University. The project involved examining the design structure of a non-European piece of representational artwork. The piece I chose was a close up of a Persian painting. The more I examined the artwork, the more I began to see not only an expanding and overlapping radial grid with initial centerpoints of the circles being at the corners, but also a fractal effect, where design elements were repeated on different scales using different elements.

For example, the contours of a foreground boulder could be seen repeated in the structure of a tree branch. These elements were also constrained very expertly withing the radialy expanding circular grid. This piece employed a radially expanding grid from each corner, like overlapping ripples in a pond from four stones thrown in. The grid was then used to develop and abstract design that emulated a landscape, with detailed foreground and broad background elements.

The grid was deliberately emphasized, and allowed me to also explore alternate methods for creating designs to which I could apply the 'multiple overlapping transparent planes' theme I had been exploring in my oil paintings and other drawings, usually employing circles.

Looking back at this peice and recalling the impetus for the project, I can't help but wonder if the designs I saw in that Persian painting were actually there, or if I had percieved a design structure/scheme that was looking to become realized and the Persian piece acted only as a kind of Rorshach catalyst. Either way, it is one of my favorite pieces and contains concepts that I don't believe I ever fully explored and plan to do so someday.

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