Autotrophs create complex forms from ephemeral energy – weaving sunshine into molecules. Plants, algae, cyanobacteria are the ultimate alchemists. As lichens, they form symbioses with the heterotrophic fungi and together become
crystalline beingnesses.
East: 2018-current
The forest is your guru. Sabbatical from lichens. Painting. Forest mandalas. Spring offerings each full and new moon. Hiking. Wandering. Exploring. Creative writing. Stories. Non-violent communication practice circles. Air pollution
data analyses. Work for earth skills school. More strong women standing near me. Gardens actually grow this time. Soil building. Winter garden. Food from beneath the snow.
- Story Reciever – Colored pencils, 2022.
- The wind doesn’t make mistakes. Oil on panel, 2022.
- Mistakes. The wind does not make mistakes, when it meets an obstacle (blue dots) it goes around instead of identifying with it. – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Rain pounding, Releasing. Pastel on paper, 2021
- Fir forest at 6,000 feet – Pastel on paper, 2021
- The intersection between land and water – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Darkest Night, Colored pencil on paper, 2019
- What is important – Pastels on paper, 2021
- Leaves on the forest floor, little bits of sunshine hidden for the winter – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Mist on the pond – Pastel on paper, 2021
- The Forest is Spring – Oil on birch board, 2021
- The Forest is Spring – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Resistance – Colored pencil on paper, 2021
- The outside is not so different from the inside – the top half is the outer world, the bottom half the inner world, the green is what we see as ourselves, the yellow is what we percieve as others, the lines are our areas of focus, the shapes are those things happening that we aren’t focused on – Pastels on paper, 2021
- Juat paint outside for 20 minutes
- Our eyes always focus on the branches or the sky behind the branches, but never the spaces between them, the dynamic twisting shapes and planes that are alot like each of us. Spaces between the Branches #3 – Oil on birch board, 2021
- Spaces Between the Branches #1, Oil on Birch Board, 2021
- Spaces between the Branches #2, Oil on Birch board, 2021
- The sun always looks like its pointed right at us, and if we were seeing from many different perspecives, we’d see the sun shining bright right there, a million suns – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Peltigera lichen, the sun feeding it from above, the earth waving with it from below – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Granite domes, Panthertown valley – Colored pencil on paper, 2021
- Morning Mandala – which one to choose? The first is always the most potent. White pine, wind fallen Parmotrema lichens, 2019
- The spell of cause and effect. Each color represents a type of event. Is cause and effect as linear and seperated from all other causes and effects, as we so often tend to percieve it? – Pastel on paper, 2021
- Anastomosis – Conte on paper. Winter Solstice 2021
West: 2006-2018
Limbo and near paralysis. Friends too, its not just me. Freight train escape. Southern Appalachians. Forage wild plants. Dumpster food. Banned from a National Forest for living in one place for too long. Went west. Northern Rockies.
No electricity, no plumbing, tall forest, abundance. Thin soil. Plants not growing. Ran out of money. Back to school. Integrate into world, can’t escape. Study lichens. Channeled Scablands. Argentina. Sub-Antarctic. Great Basin Desert.
Alpine. Emotional and physical and mental bodies out of alignment. Illness. Alternative healing. Contemporary Shamanism. Tibetan Buddhism. Animism. Painting. Block printing. Drawing. Strong women standing near me.
- Snake Woman – Oil on Canvas 2018
- Burrowing Owl – Linoleum block print on paper, 2017
- Sitting at the feet of the Stone People – Pencil on paper, 2017
- Deep Beneath the Sedentary Layers – Oil on Canvas 2018
- Finding Heart Center – Oil on Canvas, 2018
- The Enlightenment Stupa of Lama Yeshe – Linoleum block print, 2017
- Lizard Journey – Linoleum block print, 2016
Back before I my journey as a lichenologist, I lived in a primitive 1-room cabin in the Northern Rockies. No plumbing, no electricity, no chain saws (just an axe and maul!), lots of books, lots of walks, a couple puppies, a hilarious
friend, and my own intensive studies on fungal physiology and taxonomy and cellular biology. And we also planted alot of fruit and nut trees (84 to be exact) and tried our hand at building soil and gardens. What were the winters
like? Well, we were snowed in for up to three months, and when there wasn’t snow, getting water was challenging. How often do you have to use a pick-axe to get drinking water? Those were damn good years. Among the best.
North: early years
Put your hand down, no more about paradigms, says the history teacher. Highschool. Dean. Family. Here’s a sculpture to show what I mean. Some get it then. Cognitive Science for university. Something is missing in our consciousness.
I will help find it. Year 2000 elections. Protests. 1st political science class. Not boring. Politicized. Its the stories that are missing in our cognition – its not our brains. Its the input, not the processes. Become a journalist.
Do the school. Study political science instead of writing. Anyone can write. Its the context that’s most important. And the context is big. Its heavy. Its rickety. Its thousands of years old. Its blowback blowing back and back again.
Its too much. Draw it. Exploitation everywhere. Draw it. Its within me, I can’t stop it. Draw it. Drop out of university. Limbo. Lost. And then the magic begins.
- The Dreadnought, Mixed media on paper, 2003
- Lele the Elephant, Mixed media on paper, 2003
- Paradigm Box, oil on plexiglass, steel base, 1997