Morchella Major

These monumental pieces are made from a white oak tree that was standing dead and had to be taken down. I was sad to see the tree come down. When it was still standing, it supported a wide variety of life. With these pieces I tried to represent the spirit of some of those things that were denied the opportunity to take up residence in that oak once it was removed.

Morchella

Morchella are made from turned end-grain spalted maple. Spalting occurs when fungi invade and digest wood. The line patterns that form are called zone lines. These zone lines are barriers that fungal agents produce in order to protect and delineate their territory as they compete to digest the wood. Zone lines produced by fungi are made of melanin, the same pigment that humans produce in their skin.

The lit component is a wire armature coated with a pigmented wood glue paper mache with shellacked rice paper apertures.