But the spores remain 

But the spores remain is a collaboration with fungi of the Trametes genus. Delicately woven through burlap with thread on canvas, inspired by the handful of polypores I had once collected that were so fragile, they could have fallen apart completely before my hands finished the piece. The process of crafting this was spontaneous, much like my previous works with organic material, it felt like a challenge in presence and non-attachment. Combining the various weights of materials; the bouncy canvas, the loosely woven plant fibres, and the thin, crunchy polypores. When you are in any kind of creative collaboration with someone or something, you cannot maintain full control, no matter how hard you try. This surrendering can put you in a vulnerable position, but is also where a lot of life’s magic can happen. As I assembled this work, little pieces of the mushroom would break off and get caught between the burlap, becoming a symbol of all the hidden ways that our messy pasts can shape us. In working with these very dry and fragile fungal beings I began to see parallels to the tower card within the tarot. When faced with the sudden collapse of something that you previously relied on, you are left to clean up the rubble. No matter how much you clean up what has been broken, there are always little pieces of debris that remain. On a personal level, this artwork acted as a processing to the messy entanglement of relationships that aren’t always reciprocal and the fragility of friendships built on unsteady foundations. When zooming out, I see it as a recognition of how the little deaths we experience get carried with us and how endings are never quite the end. With that mentality, we can become more accepting of change and perhaps even death, as a continuum of life.