Fishbone Beard Lichen | Bio Indicators as Sacred measures of purity and sanctity

December 11, 2024

(above) Fishbone Beard Lichen under microscope from Georgetown, Maine 2024

Usnea filipendula or fishbone beard lichen is a bio indicator of air quality, only growing in areas of extremely low pollution. Under the microscope you can really see the fishbone pattern, the images evoking ghostly skeletons. I only remember ever seeing it twice, both times in remote and rural areas of coastal Maine. In these types of forests I can feel a shift walking through these environments. It reminds me of the forest in Princess Mononoke 1997; an animated movie about the sanctity of nature and the spirits that live there who are under threat as humans and industry move in. When I walk in a forest draped in tree lichens, I feel like I am in the presence of these spirits. The lichen denotes the sacred space I walk.

As I was exploring the Seguinland area of coastal Maine this week, I came upon a stretch of forest with fishbone beard lichen draping over the branches of spotted hawthorne. I remember during a hike on Swans Island near Mount Desert Island I saw the same yellow-green tinsel on spruce trees for the first time. I sent my friend pictures who knew more about plants than I did asking if this lichen could be old man’s beard? They too, unfamiliar with this area had never seen usnea or beard lichen in the east.

Beard lichens only grow where the air is purest, making it a bio indicator for low pollution levels in the forests it makes its home. Here in Maine fishbone beard grows to about 4-5 inches. A 4 inch sample of fishbone lichen is estimated to be around 200 years old. Usnea filipendula is said to grow as slow as 1mm per decade, often outliving the trees it grows on. The lichen does not injure the tree, but often chooses dying trees to use the tall bare sun reaching branches to help facilitate the process of photosynthesis.

I believe that when we are in the presence of this particular lichen we are in a venerated space designated by the absence of our sins (pollution). The immaculate conditions signaled by the growth of this rare and beautiful indicator should remind us to tread lightly, there and everywhere else we go so that we may begin to see more of these sacred spaces.

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Stills from Princess Mononoke 1997 in the heart of the forest, a sacred area off limits to protect its sanctity covered in moss, silent soft light, and insects indicating the purity of this place.

Rose Window

December 10, 2024

These mockups are for the “Rose Window”; a project in progress as I learn the ins and outs of stained glass. I began by inoculating a collection of Petri dishes containing a medium of sheep’s blood agar with holy water from the Vatican and cured them in resin in order to fashion it into a large-scale rose window. The idea is to visualize the microbial communities captured in the water of those practicing the same faith.

Blood, sheep, shepherding, and holy water are all important symbols in Catholicism. Through the observation of what grows in the holy water the practitioners use to cleanse and bless themselves upon entering holy sites, I can speculate that the microbiome from their skin enters the pool creating a unique bath of sinners and prayers; instead of the individual, the unique signature of the flock.

Research has been conducted to demonstrate the correlation between being close to one another, and sharing similar bacteria. “The researchers found that people who lived together — no matter their relationship — tended to have the same microbe strains in their mouths, and the longer they lived together, the more they shared. ” (Ewen Callaway, Nature.com) The “Rose Window” would NOT be a tool to prove the legitimacy of faith, but a way to look further into the concept that we are all connected through seen, and unseen systems. Is it the signature of a flock? Could a shared microbiome be initiated by the act of blessing oneself? Are there sacred microbes?

This is an ongoing project about visualizing faith through speculative microbiology.

Garden of Eden

June 26, 2023

Lilith in fragmented accounts originating from the Hebrew bible is said to have been made from the same clay as Adam in the Garden of Eden, and then banished for not obeying Adam. Other accounts say she copulated with archangel Samael and was then banished to hell and made the first, she-demon. It is said Eve was then created from Adams's rib to keep him company and obey. But she ended up choosing knowledge over Adam and was punished with the origin of sin.

Orca whales are believed by science to originate from a deer-like species and evolved into what they are today. Perhaps their evolution into the ocean could be a kind of banishment into the underworld. They have no predators, display behaviors of cruelty for the sake of fun, and are some of the most intelligent hunters on earth. Black and white, dark and light, do we share a connection with the ocean-dwelling killers? And if the sea is the “underworld”, could Lilith be a siren? Just as the story of Lilith is speculated to have been omitted from the bible, what if the story of the orca and other animals were as well? I am curious about what the bible would have looked like had it included the full spectrum of the garden. I would like to know the snake’s point of view as much as I would like to know Eve and Lilith’s.

Or maybe it did, and Adam is the only story that was remembered, and perhaps it was only remembered in a way that benefitted the Adams of the world at the time?

This painting depicts Lilith in the Garden of Eden post-copulation with Adam. He sits against the tree knowingly while the snake and crow come to warn her that Adam has given up his rib to create a new wife that is more him than her,( depicted as a ghostly chrysalis to the right). Lilith’s face begins to fade into a veil of darkness, right before she is about to eat a pomegranate that would give her the power of knowledge and sin, so she could know Adam’s. Circling below in the underworld are the orcas, waiting to take Lilith down to the sea, where she will spend eternity luring corrupt men to their death with her siren song. In the circular center portal is a vague look into the future, where soft blue mountains are interrupted by billboards with depictions of god’s light on them.

Even the walls were collaborators.

June 17, 2023

These wallpaper and tile patterns were commonly found in homes during the period of the Berlin Wall. They were also seen preserved in the interrogation rooms at Hohenschönhausen prison in Berlin., a Stasi prison from the former Soviet occupied East sector.

Is there a darkest microbiome?
The question that repeatedly popped into my head while I was there.

How to carry water

December 16, 2022

Using fire!

I fell in love with pit firing while having the incredible opportunity to take a workshop from Petrona, a local of San Roque de Cumbaza in the cloud forests of Peru. There, the bright yellow and iron-rich soil allowed for some of the most beautiful reds I have yet to fire. The process is incredibly labor intensive, as the deposits lie on the side of a very steep mountain. These areas are protected by the people that source the clay for their personal wares. After sourcing the clay, Petrona hiked back down to her village and showed me how to apply the grog- bits of finely ground already fired clay (usually from broken pots they recycle using this process). After grinding the yellow clay with my feet, the grog Petrona would toss in, created a muted gray,and a clay body that would shape quickly and durably. Using coils, Petrona showed me how to sculpt my bowl using just my hands and a husk from a gourd-like nut. After the clay dried we brought our wares to the center of the village where she built a fire using a machete and satika wood. The pots were placed within and atop the fire and in less than 30 minutes they emerged with a gorgeous red finish. She had brought some achiote for us to use around the rim to give it a finishing design. The materials of each location will yield different results because of each place’s unique ecosystem and geology. I was so excited by how accessible, natural, and holistic pit-fired earthenware clay was, and I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting in different landscapes with wild clays since.

Applying what I learned from Petrona in San Roque at home! I learned a lot about how to transfer these techniques from the local materials I learned with, to the ‘local’ materials I am able to source from home. I started by watching some videos by Andy Ward on youtube here https://youtu.be/w1aPlVBm35I I bought some of the micaceous clay he uses in New Mexico, got some pine (something that burns hot and fast), and dug a small pit in the yard. I placed my bisqued pots on the outside of the fire to kind of prep them to the heat so they wouldn’t be shocked and crack. I then placed the on the fire and covered the pots with some more sticks. I let this burn completely, adding wood until the pots “glowed” and then let them sit in the ash overnight. When I removed them they were warm, and if I was lucky had some of the black marks from trapped carbon on them! the difference I have found between the pine and satika woods is the “purity” of the fire. Pine leaves behind a sap, and the satika burns a lot “cleaner”. Petrona preferred minimal black marks on her pots, but I don’t really mind it! It’s all the potter’s preference.

A lot of my process considers how the artwork decomposes after time— how quickly? What is the impact? I think about this in archival and environmental terms and it will often render me creatively paralyzed. Moving towards clay, wood and stone as primary materials is a helpful solution. These clay imprints using the pit fire method are a beautiful way to consume but not too much. I am in love with the way the alchemic reactions mimic the landscape in which it is fired, and the simple purposeful forms that hold and carry water, food, and information in the case of the imprints.

Pit-fired beetle galleries using felled trees, lichen, moss and seaweed from the island of Örö, Finland.
I love how this process replicates the natural objects that live in the space surrounding the firing. No matter where it is taking place, these molecular patterns remind us all that we are made of the same stuff —✨dust

Echos

November 25, 2022

Military portals echo and transport me to a violent past, covered in a soft blanket of moss. Butterflies and purple wildflowers grow everywhere and distract me like an embroidered veil shrouding a history of grief.

Maybe I’m dramatic,

And then it snows, and the world goes quiet.

The next day walking towards the echos, prints of a fox and a vole circle around–

There are no secrets in the snow.

An echo reverberates through the island again, and then the light pours through the trees.

I can’t hear for a moment and look out to sea, the black deep swallowing up a single swan feeding on the open ocean.

Is it lonely here?

Snow clouds on the horizon glow oranges and pink. It’s almost dark and I pour myself a drink. Totally perplexed at my anxiety I sit down and watch more echos. Looking for a distraction, I google what other animals grieve. And I see news of a bolide over Norway.

Not sure why I can’t sleep. I watch more echos and then I wake up and take another walk. I see where animals have made their homes. There are no secrets in the snow, I repeat to myself.

Is privacy a right?

Do all swans find a mate, or are some always alone?

No light today. No distractions.

It’s my dad's birthday.

I google what animals stay in families forever.

Am I hungry or thirsty?

What am I doing here?

Yesterday I looked into an abandoned house on the North Harbor. There were beer cans and cigarette trash littered around an old wood stove. A very glossy chipped red door was the portal to the kitchen.

And then I saw a heap of feathers below one of the windows. I walked around and looked into the other windows. There were three of those corpse heaps under each window I could see.

Orcas stay in families for a long time. Like humans, often for life.

They are also the cruelest, most intelligent hunters aside from us.

I wonder why I dream about them all the time?

Should I have a child?

I think I’m thirsty, but I should probably only have water.

After an hour in the sauna I feel better. Warmth is a distraction, and maybe an echo of when we felt safest.

Elephants stay in families for a long time too.