Art has been a large part of my life as far back as childhood. I remember walking my suburban streets looking for odd bits of broken toys and bottle caps to glue together and bring home as “presents” for my family.
When I finally was introduced to the woods, rivers, and streams, I was surrounded by inspiration. At that point, nature art was all I found myself wanting to create.
I forage for materials, mostly a shelf fungi (my canvas), driftwood and other embellishments, painting them, then fitting them together in such a way that it resembles my vision of how nature is and feels to me. Beautiful, serene and as natural looking as possible. I look at the shape, bumps and divots of the shelf fungi and try to incorporate them into the finished piece, in essence allowing the mushroom to choose what it wants to become.
At first I tried etching like most people do with shelf fungi, but it just didn’t give me the color range I felt like nature needed to be represented by, then moved onto marker and colored pencil. Neither worked for me, and when I tried paint I had the “aha” moment that I had been looking for. But it still didn’t sit right that the fungi wasn’t “sitting right”. They were wobbly and uneven, so I fit a random piece of driftwood I had collected to it and voila!
The representation of my passion for nature that I had been striving for since I discovered the woods. I truly wish more people could work doing what they love like I am able to do right now, rolling all of my obsessions into a “job”.
I hope that even if someone might not buy one of my pieces that they are still able to find enjoyment out of my nature recreations. I love sharing with the like minded, no one better understands my work than a fellow forager.
