Lamella Love, Fungi Shield and I are excited to be in Every Woman Biennial 2024:

I Will Always Love You

Lamella Love, Fungi Shield, Wildlife Series: ceramic, 6.25” x 6.5” x 3.25”, 2023

Largest female/identifying as female/non-binary festival/ exhibit founded by C. Finely with Molly Caldwell, Exec Director & Producer/Co-Curator; Eddy Segal, Artistic Director/Co-Curator and Jerelyn Huber, Gallery Production Manager/Co-Curator

Lamella Love was inspired by fungi lamella/gill engineering of the Chocolate Milky, Lactarius lignyotus. This resourceful fungi exudes latex droplets as a defense mechanism to ward off predators. Sometimes a girl has to create a shield to protect what she loves. This mycorrhizal fungi is an example of one of the earliest alliances on planet Earth. 90% of all plants rely on mycorrhizal relationships, a partnership of fungi with different plant species. They collaborate yet remain recognizable as themselves. The plants can have many different fungi/mycelium (fiber optic-like roots) connectors. 500 million years ago it was mycorrhizal fungi that enabled algae to transplant from sea to land supporting our first terrestrial plants. 

I will always love you, regardless of species.

It’s clearly time that we got the memo on mutualism, the indelible interdependence between diverse species. We are in this together.