Sculpture
2014 - 2022
Dimensions: various
Wood, paint, stain, paper, fabric, twig
Microbial Worlds
In a Time of Change: Microbial Worlds
2017
“Microbes are everywhere!”
“Worship the all mighty microbe!”
Wallpaper seemed like the perfect way to express the ubiquity of microbes in our environment while also expressing their invisibility both literally and figuratively as something we, until recently, have ignored, devalued or misunderstood. For upwards of nine months a side table in my kitchen supported a small microscopy lab where I cultivated and observed a multitude of microscopic organisms that later inspired the forms in the wallpaper design. The palette was chosen for its pleasing, visual subtlety blending into one’s surroundings while surprising the viewer at closer inspection with a variety of strange, unfamiliar forms.
“Human Microbiome”, “Microbial Cloud”, “Symbiosis” are terms referring to colonies of microbes we now know are key to maintaining a healthy body and environment. Take away some of the microbes in the human gut and our ability to digest properly falters. Trees rely on the subterranean network of hair-like filaments known as “Mycelium” to collect nutrients from the soil and in turn provide the mushrooms and fungus with sugar generated via photosynthesis. Microbes occupy and thrive in every corner of the earth and outnumber human cells in our bodies 10 to 1.
Microbes are worthy of our devotion like religious icons. With this idea in mind I created a small series of vibrantly colored, “icon like” paintings visually inspired by the mushrooms and fungus surrounding my house. I took great delight for several weeks this past fall photographing, drawing and painting all the “fruiting bodies” I could find. Sitting on the ground, I studied the mushroom as one would a face with all its peculiar details, and the particularities of light on the forest floor. In the studio, these naturalistic field paintings gave way to a vibrant palette and emphasis on pattern and texture when combined with a variety of media and my interest in early Ethiopian icons. In many non-western cultures the use of mushroom imagery in art is thought to bring good luck and health to the possessor.