Fungi Art

While doing research for my website topic I came across a woman who used fungi as her medium for her art pieces. I was intrigued by this and considering we just had an art history class, I decided to do a little digging. Nellie Staves was born in 1917 in West Danville, Vermont. Her family lived off the land that they owned and her parents taught her to never take more from the forest than she could use. She spent the majority of her time outdoors and enjoyed collecting fungi from trees. Nellie eventually moved to Tupper Lake and became very involved in conservatism. Her belief of preserving the forest and her interest in fungi led Nellie to using fungi as art.

Fungi Carving. The Wild Center

Bracket Fungus growing on a tree

As we can see from the image above, there is so much detail carved into the fungi. At first sight I originally thought that Nellie carved into the fungi and then painted it over to emphasize what the carving was. To my surprise she only used a protractor, a spoon, and a soft brush to create these elegant fungus etchings (Lynch). Just three tools! Now how does that even work? Nellie collected bracket fungi from dead or dying hardwood trees. Most common type of fungi that is used is known as bracket fungus. The fungi is easier to work with if you let it dry for about a week. Light shades were made by applying little pressure onto the fungi and dark shades were made by making deep marks on the fungi. To my surprise fungi art is common and is fun activity for kids to do at camps. It is great that Nellie used Adirondack material to create art about the Adirondacks. Definitely conservatism at its finest.

Lynn, Peggy, and Sandra Weber. Breaking Trail: Remarkable Women of the Adirondacks. Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain, 2004. Print.

Lynch, Mike. "Remembering Nellie Staves." Adirondack Daily Enterprise. N.p., 09 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

http://folkart.tauny.org/identity.html

http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/mushroom-art-zmaz79sozraw.aspx