If you’ve seen my social media posts, you might know
where I’m going with this. Last year I had a bit of a mushroom phase, which I
like to think was like Picasso’s pink and blue periods. That’s what I like to
tell myself, anyway! :D My mother asked me one day if I’d seen this
particular group of mushrooms growing nearby, so I went to look and took my
camera with me. This is what resulted: lots of photos of cute fungi.
While I’m on the subject, did you know that
mushrooms are only the ‘flowering’ part of the fungi? Most of it is underground
in vast strings of interconnected webs and are mainly found around trees,
especially in a forest. As you can see, these were surrounding a tree stump.
Fungi is useful to the trees because it connects them to each other and helps
them to communicate.
I know that might sound hippyish, but it’s been
scientifically proven that trees communicate with each other. If one is being
cut or eaten, it releases chemicals which other trees pick up and they react to
it by producing another chemical to make their leaves taste worse. At least
that’s what I remember from watching a programme on it! They communicate in a
similar way through the fungi, so it’s like a symbiotic relationship.
Nature continues to amaze me and the more I learn,
the more I think our ancestors were right that there are spirits in the
landscape; i.e., more going on than we think.
Anyway, I was inspired by these photos to draw this,
a sort of whimsical, fantasy art picture where the mushrooms in the middle are
feeling a bit hemmed in.
It is now mounted and available in my shop.
