Lichen Collaboration for START Norman

Back in April, I made mention of a collaboration that I worked on with Sarah Hearn for the threshold: the promised land exhibition, part of START Norman.  Sarah is a visual artist who also showed work in Rare Earth at Plug Projects in Kansas City last year.  A kindred nature-inspired artist, much of her work involves lichen -- a group of organisms that has strongly grasped my attention as of late.  I've been in awe of Sarah's beautiful macrophotography of these intriguing life forms, intricate paper cutting, and thought provoking installation since I first saw it.  Clearly, I was all about working on a piece together for our site specific installations in Norman.
I'm excited to share the photos of our collaboration with you now, which Sarah so kindly captured for us.  This work is a colony of two lichen interpretations: Parmotrema perforatum (perforated ruffle lichen) and Peltigera canina (dog-lichen).  My contribution included the moss growing among the dog-lichen, and apothecia and ruffles throughout the perforated ruffle lichen.
In addition to the collaboration, Sarah placed several mini-installations of lichen throughout the site, and designed a scavenger hunt for visitors to use in finding them all!  They blended in quite well to their surroundings.  She added my two Succession installations to the hunt as well.  I loved this engaging concept, and hope it was a fun way for visitors to learn about and connect with nature.
After this project, I've found that I can't stop observing lichen whenever I see it.  I'm captivated by it!  This is a subject matter that you will likely see more of in the future.

Succession / 52 Forms of Fungi || #29

I love polypores.  Mushrooms are cute, but there's just something fascinating to me about finding a tree with a ladder of conks growing up the trunk.  They pose a challenge to knit, mostly due to the shape and attachment element, but the colors are especially pleasing to the eye when I get to work on them.  Knit Picks Palette really has become a favorite yarn of mine, simply because of the fact that with 150 shades to choose from it's pretty easy to create that fade from light to dark when necessary.  I have a giant basket full of probably about 1/3 of the colors they offer - HA!
Anyway, what we have here is resinous polypore, created as part of my Succession installation for START Norman (on display for another week!).  The fruiting structures of this species are rather fleshy - I've seen them on trees before and remember the sponginess when poked.  They typically grow on very rotted wood - fallen logs, dead wood, old stumps, etc.

 

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Succession / 52 Forms of Fungi || #28

I knitted velvet foot fungi as one of the species of my Succession installation for START Norman this month.  The exhibition, Threshold: the promised land, incorporated several site-specific installations at the Old Lumber Yard on Main St in Norman, OK.  I wrote more about the background of the project and my installation in my introductory post.
Velvet foot fungus is an interesting one.  It is commonly cultivated for culinary use, but the cultivated mushrooms look completely different from the ones that grow in the wild.  I already knitted the cultivated version last year - the enoki mushroom.  On a side note, I finally tried cooking with them and I highly recommend it!  We used them in Tom Kha Gai, a favorite recipe in our household.
Anyhow, according to Mushroom Expert, this species was also the FIRST MUSHROOM TO ENTER OUTER SPACE.  That's right, these guys were taken on a shuttle mission to study how fungi would react in low gravity.  Pretty cool, huh?  Beyond that, they grow in clumps on decaying stumps and the caps tend to look a little rubbery.
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Niche, From a Distance

As promised, here are some photos of the outdoor installations for Niche, from a distance.  I took down the exhibit yesterday, and it was interesting to see how the pieces had changed after being out in the rain and sun for a month.  I am told that the realism of the installations had some people going for a minute, but I'm glad that they got people observing the environment of the park and hope that they continue to do so in their daily lives.  I would like to give a big Thank You! to the staff at Martin Park Nature Center for being so accommodating and awesome throughout the duration of the exhibit, and thank you to everyone who went by and checked it out!
First up… burnt orange bolete.  This was probably the most conspicuous installation, set underneath a giant bur oak tree on Trail B.  Every installation is fun, but placing multiple large mushrooms in a forest tends to make me a little giddy.  By the way, if you fall in love with these and would like to have one of your own, I have some available in my Etsy shop!
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False turkey tail.  Probably the most difficult to find, because it sat down off the trail a few yards, and to be honest I think some plant life started to obscure it a small amount toward the end.  But part of the fun is finding it, right?  So easy to overlook, but vibrant once you see it.  This was located on the west side of Trail loop A.
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Stalked scarlet cup.  Directly next to a bend in the trail (on Trail C), some people stopped and told me they thought they were tiny red flowers at first, while I was taking the photos of them.  Installing these reminded me of Decomposition: Colony I & Decomposition: Colony II, because they were so small and numerous.  Nostalgia for the beginning of my installation work; so much has happened since then!
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Broken Bow Flora

 As I mentioned last week, J and I spent a few days down in southeastern Oklahoma last weekend (where I also did my latest installation for the Decomposition series, "Riot").  It's a beautiful time of year to visit that area -- everything was in bloom: the dogwoods, red buds, wildflowers.  Trees were just starting to leaf out.  A hint of fungus was starting to appear here and there (that's another photo post entirely).  We absolutely loved the scenery, and it was so refreshing to get away from a few days.  You don't realize how much you miss the "sound" of silence until you hear it.  There are few things I love more than the absence of urban noises - cars, voices, industrial sounds... and in its place just the low hum of the wind and a nearby stream.  So peaceful, so revitalizing.  We will definitely be back.
I took so many photos that I will have to break it up into a few posts.  The flora comes first!

Little Wildlife

These are from the Wichita Wildlife Refuge.  We always see the obvious longhorn, bison, prairie dog and deer, but I like to look for the little guys too.  Sadly, I have yet to see a snake here after all the time I've spent in the refuge.  I know some people would count this as a blessing, and I will say I'm glad I've never stepped on one or came too close to one without knowing it was there first.  However, it would be great to see one from afar...and then take a wide route around it.

 

Hiking is Good for the Soul

We drove down to the Wichita Wildlife Refuge this weekend, which is probably the closest area that has an abundance of hiking trails and gives one a feeling of solitude/remoteness.  The morning was cool, so there really weren't too many people out.  Aside from playing naturalist and observing minute details, my favorite thing about heading out of town like this is the silence.  No vehicles, no industrial sounds or people... all you can hear is the occasional tremble of the leaves... and that odd buzzing sound in your ears which is only apparent when either your hearing is stopped up or when you are away from the sounds of society.  It's funny how silence does, in fact, have a sound.  I drink it up like an elixir that hydrates and refreshes my tense mind.