Deconstructed Book, Laser-etched hand-made mushroom paper with GPS trails (10 pages), 6”x8”
During the fall of 2019, I had spent every other day cycling around the North Campus of The University of Buffalo and circling in Letchworth woods searching for specific species of mushrooms. Letchworth woods is full of decay matter and a perfect ground for saprophytic mushrooms that contribute to the decomposing of organic matter and enrichment of the soil. I must have made hundreds of miles of trails in a small area of the woods and around it. I was surprised how little my mushroom harvest was - some days I would barely find any. It was a dry fall and my life was revolving around weather patterns and University at Buffalo’s lawn mowing crews. My goal was to sustainably harvest local species, store their spores for future propagation, and drying them to create pigments for the next research project. In this project, I used nature’s own printmaking tool - spore prints. Each mushroom can produce up to several spore prints. The opportunity to observe the transition of the Letchworth woods from lush summer attire to first frost deep sleep created a deep connection to this place. After a while, I felt like I became a part of the ecosystem - wondering in “aimless “ patterns searching for “food “. I learned how to move extremely quietly and trained my eye to spot my subjects of interest. I felt like I was creating large scale drawings by my countless explorations - my own network over the network of mycelium occupying this long decaying forest.