Saguaro Land: Phoenix artist maps the anatomy of birds, animals and insects of the Sonoran Desert

Saguaro Land is a series from The Show looking at the Sonoran Desert — the lushest, hottest desert in the world that happens to be our home.

Phoenix artist and educator Monica Aissa Martinez incorporates maps into her work — but not in the way you might imagine.

Instead, Martinez is focused on mapping the anatomy and physiology of birds, animals and insects of the Sonoran Desert.

The Show paid her a visit at her studio to find out where her interest in maps comes from.

Full conversation

MONICA AISSA MARTINEZ: My grandfather actually collected maps. So all my childhood, there was these beautiful maps sitting around. And I could go through them, but I couldn't cut them. I couldn't do anything with them. So that's where it really began. Putting it into my artwork, I can't remember, maybe 2015, and I made a City of Phoenix map. And because I do anatomy and physiology, the map was a human cell. And I made artwork and connected the map and the rest is history.

MARK BRODIE: You've kind of made-up for it since not being able to cut up those maps?

AISSA MARTINEZ: That's right. But you know, my grandpa would be proud. I think he'd really love what I do.

BRODIE: So how do you incorporate the maps into some of the more medical anatomy, physiology stuff that you also draw?

AISSA MARTINEZ: I don't pretend to know every, well, I'm curious and I don't, if I'm looking at a cell structure, I don't pretend to know all, everything that's in there and its purpose. And so I find a creative way of learning, which is maybe associating a city map with a human cell or a city map with a neuron, which is a cell in the brain. And then I take the parts, connect them to parts of the city, and then hopefully then I can process it and understand it, and it's worked.

BRODIE: Yeah, let me ask you about that, because you have an example right here, a map of Tucson, which you've also broken down into sort of medical components here, sort of anatomical components here. How did you sort of figure out what parts of the city would correspond to which parts of the human body?

AISSA MARTINEZ: Well, in the course of my research, I will find ways that they set up metaphors and symbols. And there's actually an assignment, I think they give it to 8-year-olds, maybe third graders, where they make some sort of association to something that they're familiar with. And it could be a playground, it could be a building. And in this case, it was a city. And so that was it. I set up to create a human cell and liken it to a city, to the layout of a city. And it's the way I've remembered everything.

BRODIE: How do you think about a city, especially a city in Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert, as it relates to the parts of a cell, the other parts of the human body?

AISSA MARTINEZ: Well, a cell is a system inside of an organism. Lots of cells make up that organism. And then that organism, let's say that I'm looking at the heart and I'm, well, let's look at the liver because that's what I'm working on right now. I'm looking at the cells of the liver, the hepatocytes. A bunch of hepatocytes make up that liver. And then a bunch of organs like the liver make up the human body. And then a bunch of bodies make up a city, a bunch of cities make up a state, make up a country, make up the planet. So we are a living organism, just like that single cell that's up on the wall, a living organism.

BRODIE: Let me ask you also about your work with animals, because you've done a lot of, again, with maps, but also looking at animals and sort of the physiology of animals, specifically ones that are sort of native to this part of the world, right?

AISSA MARTINEZ: Well, So my primary interest was in human anatomy and physiology. And then naturally, well, we're mammals. So I'm going to look at mammals. And I have a curiosity. I don't know how pleasant this is to hear, but I always wonder why they do research on some of the, you know, cats and frogs and animals like that. I never understood why they use them in research labs. Well, I understand now because we actually are very similar. We're mammals. Mammals are mammals.

I have a cat. I drew her. The cat killed a rat. My cat brought in this rat, so I drew that rat. One thing led to another. I was drawing birds in my backyard. I was drawing insects. People started sending me insects. So really, one thing led to another. And we all are similar in so many ways. And really, I have this thought now that life is life. I mean, I'm drawing bees, I'm drawing flies, I'm drawing crickets. If it's in the Sonoran Desert and I come across it, I'm going to draw it.

BRODIE: So like you go to your mailbox every day and you never know what might be in those envelopes?

AISSA MARTINEZ: I know, I never know. Somebody sent me a Palo Verde beetle and I was completely scared of it. But you sit down and you draw it. I have a magnifying lens and I sit there and I look at it and I don't touch it right away. It takes me a while to touch it. But when I'm breaking it apart and really looking at its structure and I become fascinated with it, my fear dissipates.

BRODIE: What has doing this, especially with the animals, what has that taught you about this place in which we live?

AISSA MARTINEZ: Well, it's a diverse it has a diverse life. We are only one part of it. Think of what I just told you about this, about living cells. One cell makes up an organ. Well, one organism makes up an environment. We are part of a larger ecology. And there are some, well, humans have lived alongside some of these animals for a lot longer than current society has been here. I do understand the fear. I think that these animals deserve respect, but I don't know that we shouldn't be thinking about them as we move in the way that we're changing as a society. I don't think that we should ignore animals.

BRODIE: Do you think that by looking at these animals in the way that you do, and by looking at the maps in the way that you do, has that led you to look at the Sonoran Desert, look at Arizona, look at Northern Mexico differently than you did before?

AISSA MARTINEZ: Yes, I'm originally from Texas, and I lived in New Mexico, graduate school, and then we came to Arizona. I only thought of separate states. And now I think of desert, Southwest. I have a bigger picture of these states that I've lived in. I used to see the United States and I used to see Mexico, but we're North America. So my picture is changing as I start looking at the environment.

BRODIE: Do you think that this kind of work, the work that you do, would be possible somewhere else? Like, would it be the same thing if you were doing it in a place other than in the Sonoran Desert?

MARTINEZ: You know what I've learned about the Sonoran Desert is, oh, the immense diversity of life in it. It's like nothing else. I know the Chihuahuan Desert and, you know, I've been through various deserts in the Southwest and the Sonoran Desert is vast and full of life in a way that other deserts are not. And not just animal life, but plant life as well. And history. It's full of incredible history.

BRODIE: Well, and you have a really interesting perspective, having lived, as you say, in Texas, New Mexico, and now Arizona, you've seen firsthand different deserts and what lives there and what doesn't live there and able to compare and contrast.

AISSA MARTINEZ: What can survive here that couldn't survive somewhere else. If you can survive the Sonoran Desert, Gosh, that's some feat, right? Yeah.

LAUREN GILGER: That was Phoenix artist and educator, Monica Aisa Martinez. To see some of her work and hear the rest of our Saguaro Land series, head to our website, theshow.kjzz.org.