Description
This spore print was made using an Irish garden mushroom called the Fly Agaric, Amanita Muscaria, mushroom which grow gregariously under the birch trees by the gate.
It is the classic red toadstool of our childhood fairy tales and produces a lovely white spore print where its free gills allow for distinct clarity of pattern. I have included a picture of the actual mushrooms.
The Fly Agaric is considered poisonous, although unlike its cousin, the deadly Death Cap, it is rarely fatal. The name fly agaric comes from the old European practice of using this fungi crushed, dipped or sprinkled in milk as an insecticide.
Despite its poisonous properties the consumption of this species in small amounts by indigenous populations is widely documented and I have blogged about it on my website.
Gillian Duggan creates unique paintings using wild mushrooms and her passion for nature and art is visible in her work.
Working with her garden mushrooms, she harnesses their spore dispersal action to create these individual patterns. Some patterns are mirror images of the mushrooms’ gills and others are more abstract when she adds air currents to the process creating a sense of movement, fluidity and, sometimes, playfulness.
Her work reflects the juxtaposition of decay and life, stillness and motion as nature shapes the world we inhabit. Mushrooms and fungi recycle the dead and resupply the building blocks of life. Nothing is ever still. Motion is everywhere.
Each piece of Gillian’s work is unique and original.
Her medium is spores which are dried, fixed, framed, sealed and ready to hang.
Gillian lives in the foothills of the Dublin mountains surrounded by trees, birds, wild animals and, of course, mushrooms.
