Fabric wall hanging, 46" across SOLD

Tree roots do not let the mycorrhizal net die in the winter. Instead, trees feed the colonies from their reserves through all seasons. Mycorrhizal fungi and root hairs are abundant and active in winter, but they also set spores which lie dormant until spring. In the centre of this piece is a cross section of an overwintering spore.

Kinship

Very slowly burning, the big forest tree
stands in the slight hollow of the snow
melted around it by the mild, long
heat of its being and its will to be
root, trunk, branch, leaf, and know
earth dark, sun light, wind touch, bird song.

Rootless and restless and warmblooded, we
blaze in the flare that blinds us to that slow,
tall, fraternal fire of life as strong
now as in the seedling two centuries ago.

- Ursula K. Le Guin

Fabric wall hanging, 42" across SOLD

As a tree ages, its dependency changes - it becomes better able to share resources. When a mature tree declines and begins to die, she sends her resources back into the network, while the younger trees begin nurturing their own young charges. Nothing is wasted.

“The living and the dead,
The awake and the sleeping,
The young and the old are all one and the same.
When the ones change, they become the others.
When those shift again, they become these again.”

Heraclitus

Fabric wall hanging, 37" across   SOLD

There are two types of fungi that colonize tree roots: Arbuscular fungi and Ectomycorrhizal fungi. Both types of fungi maintain the flow of water and nutrients through fungal strands that connect the specialized inner structures with the outer soil network.

Some fungi are specific to particular trees – for example, Arbutus and Maple trees have their own favourite fungal species. But many fungi are non-specific and will colonize trees, grasses and many other plant species. Also, one tree may host several types of fungi at once. The established fungi maintain the flow of water and nutrients through fungal strands that connect their specialized inner root structures with the outer soil network, visible to us in the form of mushrooms and truffles.

Arbuscular fungi start growing INSIDE root cells along the central core of the root. They are called Arbuscular because once inside the cells, they form tiny tree-like structures: trees inside trees! The large surface area created by their tiny but dense canopies is an efficient way to transfer water and nutrients.

"The whole is immanent in all the parts, no matter how small"

Louise B. Young, The Unfinished Universe

"Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully renders the likeness of the world."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fabric wall hanging, 46" across SOLD

Now installed at The Vista on Sparks, Ottawa, ON

Trees can’t chase their food, so they must count on resources harvested from their immediate area. Through the process of photosynthesis, they can feed themselves directly from the atmosphere using sunlight and carbon dioxide. But this chemical process also requires plenty of water … and for many trees, a consistent source is not always a given.

From the fungal point of view, water is not a problem. Fungi have the ability to draw water from the most grudging of sources, even from the air itself. They also break down molecules into simpler nutrients that can be absorbed by tree roots. But they are not capable of creating their own food because they do not photosynthesize. Trees and fungi are meant for each other!

"I've never felt comfortable with the word "path" as a description of a way of life. It's a land word, dry and earthy, whereas the only way I make any movement in my life is by allowing myself to drift, to sail, unknowing, with a spirit of adventure, ready to adapt to the culture at hand, so absorbed in the play of the moment that I don't realize when the rope on the skiff has slipped loose.
.... I find a deep moral sensitivity in being loyal to one's deepest enchantment. It's a way of love rather than principle, and it's fluid rather than firm."

Thomas Moore - The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

Fabric wall hanging, 46" across  SOLD

Seasonal cycles affect the various processes of tree root relationships - what we see above is only a small part of the complex ebb and flow beneath our feet.

There are two types of fungi that colonize tree roots: Arbuscular fungi and Ectomycorrhizal fungi. Ectomycorrhizal fungi spread their strands AROUND root cells, forming a 3-D spongy structure called the Hartig net. The tip of the root becomes enveloped with a pale mantle, easily seen with the naked eye. For this piece, I used a cross section of root as a model for the centre, to show the way Ectomycorrhizal Fungi surround the outer parts of the cells within the roots.

“Four seasons in one day
Lying in the depths of your imagination
Worlds above and worlds below
The sun shines on the black clouds hanging over the domain

Even when you're feeling warm
The temperature could drop away
Like four seasons in one day”

From the song “Four Seasons in one Day”, by Crowded House

36" quilted wall hanging

Now at Westland Gallery, London, ON. Please contact the gallery with purchasing inquiries.

This forest map shows connections between a large Mother tree and younger, smaller trees... which in turn are connected to others and to each other. This piece was inspired by a research map which traced mycorrhizal connections in a 30 x 30 m plot of Douglas Fir. Larger trees were found to be much more connected, and one of them was directly traced to 47 other trees. These mutual connections help stabilize the forest’s ecosystem.

Fungi form a bridge from one set of roots to another, not unlike the synapses between nerve cells. The stringy white hyphae of the fungi act like fiber optic cables, transmitting messages and nutrients along pathways between trees of same or different species. The rhizosphere crackles with chatter. The effect of the resulting stable environment radiates to all living creatures within its boundaries. Everything is connected.

Read more about the beginnings of my journey with this project HERE.

"If I were an alien from outer space I would see the map of this forest as a single live fabric...The forest grows like a complex membrane at the interface of solid rock and gaseous atmosphere, drawing from and contributing to both. Only when one gets close to it, armed with a field guide, perhaps, can one pick out each biological stitch and give it a name, a spurious separateness, which - in its intricately threaded life - it doesn't have and never has had. The fabric can be revealed, worn, made dull... We can crush, snip, and wear it away."

Diana Kappel-Smith - Wintering

36" quilted wall hanging

SOLD

Trees share resources even between species. Documented evidence shows that Douglas Fir and White Birch form bonds at the forest edge, trading carbon with each other seasonally via their ectomycorrhizae. Paper birch send carbon to Douglas fir seedlings, especially when they are shaded in summer, probably enhancing their survival. In spring and fall, the Douglas-fir returns the favor when the birch lose their leaves in winter.

"Listen to the trees. They know

as they sway to the hum of the universe

in wave lengths of chlorophyll, the quaking aspen

living tens of thousands of years,

memories flowing between green and ground

in the language of breath.

Birch and pine break black bread carbon,

nurse seedlings through lace threads,

roots spiralling between frayed chickadee feather,

white-tailed deer pelt, dodo and dinosaur bones,

dynasties and empires,

quilted together in subterranean networks,

layer upon layer of recycled lives."

Fran Figge - from Panspermia

37" quilted wall hanging

SOLD

This piece is on display at the Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre from Friday, Feb 7th to Sunday, March 30th, 2025.

The diurnal cycle affects the type and intensity of activity in the mycorrhizal net. Research has shown that there is a great deal more activity between noon and 6:00 pm than at any other time. Soil temperature, amount of water, and quality of light are known factors. But the activity never stops, even through the night.

With this piece I also wanted to speak of time with respect to evolution. The root-fungus relationship is as old as photosynthesis itself, millions of years old and already present when the first plants began to produce oxygen with the help of the sun's rays. Just as with any natural process, this relationship continues to evolve today with every environmental and genetic variation. In this piece I portrayed time as it appears to us - a closed circle measured with our clocks and calendars - but in fact, and most vividly in nature, it is best described as a spiral.

"The difficulty with perceiving real change and understanding time as a dimension of creation is a matter of scale. The small rhythmic patterns fall within a time span that comfortably matches our own lives, while the great directional movements take place on so much larger a scale that perception requires a time-lapse view of cosmic history."

"There are cycles within cycles within cycles. But the pattern that unfolds with time does not close back upon itself; it moves outward a little at each turning."

Louise B Young - The Unfinished Universe

Fabric wall hanging, 48" across   SOLD

Fungi ease the transfer of minerals to roots. This piece shows the hot core of earth, then layers as it begins to release minerals through water and mechanical action. Minerals are then picked up by organisms and transferred throughout living systems. The top 6" is where all root transfer takes place. Worms, bacteria and insects inhabit the area below and help break up the particles.

“So, artist, you too from the depths of your soul, down among dark and silence, let your roots creep forth, gaining strength. Draw deeply from the good nourishment of the earth but rise into the glory of the light and air and sunshine.”

Emily Carr

Fabric wall hanging, 45" across

ON HOLD FOR TOURING EXHIBITION UNTIL MID 2027  

In a dense forest, the germination and establishment of fresh trees is a challenge: larger trees take up most of the nutrients, and the canopy prevents penetration of light to the forest floor. Ground-level surfaces tend to be inhospitable, and soil quality is poor. What is a seedling to do? What else: it calls on its Mother. In effect, once a seed begins to germinate, it awakens components of the fungal mat that quickly colonize its roots. The seedling thus becomes linked with a large pool of nutrients that connects it to larger, older specimens that have access to light. The more shaded the area, the more resources a seedling can access.

"Yet no matter how deeply I go down into myself
my God is dark, and like a webbing made
of a hundred roots, that drink in silence."

Rainer Maria Rilke