28" x 20"

Fungi have been solving problems for billions of years through a mutual, but not always equal, exchange with other life forms. I am one of those forms; I gather mushrooms, then, like the wind and other animals, I spread the powdery spores of mushrooms, germinating them into a fruiting body that takes the form not of a toadstool, but of a two-dimensional image on paper. Mushrooms and I tell stories together. Our interspecies relationship grounds me; perhaps collaboration with other species may help humans to survive the current and growing disasters of our warming planet.

“Carry a Torch” depicts fennel/Foeniculum vulgare, an herb historically believed to impart strength and courage; in magic circles it is attributed with clarity and finding solutions to difficult situations. It is part of The New Herbarium series in which I reimagine the centuries-old process of collecting and preserving plants for science and art. In traditional herbaria, botanical specimens are pressed and arranged on paper. My technique departs from tradition when I place a foraged mushroom, gill-side down, on top of plants, which then serve as stencils. After the billions of spores contained in the gills or pores of the mushroom are released, they fall and mark the paper. Leaf and flower silhouettes are rendered in spores with texture, abstract patterns, and photographic detail.