Halloween in Lichen

I have to say, my travels have wiped me out. The long couple days on the road, along with the thin air up here in Denver and my waiting for my allergies to calm down and get re-acclimated to my kitty, has left me pretty useless, so I’m going to lean on a fellow polymer artist and fungi enthusiast, Maria Belkomor, to grace us with a collection of nature’s beauty.

We’ll get started by featuring this Halloween-themed palette in lichen. It’s unbelievable that these colors and forms were created by the pairing of two types of organisms–fungi and algae. Yes, I had to go research what lichen actually is, and Wikipedia says, “A lichen is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria (or both) living among filaments of a fungus in a symbiotic relationship.” Confirmed through multiple other sources, it does look like lichen is fungus-possessed. Which is pretty cool. And Halloween-esque. And, in this case, really beautiful.

Maria gathered this page of fungi in nature and fungi in art last November. What a beautiful and strange thing nature is. I will never stop being amazed and awed. Go be awed as well by following this link to Maria’s little fungi festival.

And have a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow.

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