Foraging for Maria Medina-Schechter has become a way of life.  The woods of Southern Indiana provide most of the materials she needs to create her paintings: pokeberry, oak gall, and wild strawberries.   Other ingredients, like blueberries and coffee, she purchases at the local grocery store.    Not typical materials for paintings, but for Maria creating with organic, non-toxic materials allows her to do her part in making a more sustainable world. “I’m creating with healthier materials for a healthier world,” she said.   Medina-Schechter came to this new, healthier way of creating art after a car accident in 2018.  Injuries sustained in the wreck weakened her arms to the point that she could no longer paint in oils and collage, as she had done since her years at Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle.  While recovering from surgeries on her arms, Medina-Schechter challenged herself to keep exploring, keep creating.   She came across the film Fantastic Fungi by the artist and filmmaker, Louie Schwartzberg, and she got a glimpse of the future.  Maria applied for and received the Fantastic Fungi Scholarship in 2020.   This exposed her to the teaching of mycologists and biologists from around the world.  This led to her first sculpture with mycelium, The Well-Within.

WellWithin lit from within: 22″ w x 27″h

WellWithin detail inside: 22″ w x 27”h

WellWithin detail outside: 22″ w x 27”h

WellWithin detail above: 22″ w x 27”h

Over the course of three years, this piece morphed into The Gatekeepers.

Gatekeepers_front view, 5ft x 4.5ft x 28inD.

This five-foot archway was grown from mycelium. This sculpture was grown using 260 lbs. of mycelium which grew into over a hundred mycelium bricks, taking the structure of the Well-Within but duplicating it into two columns and a five-foot archway.   Single bricks connect the arch between the two columns. Keystone species, those species that would destroy ecosystems if they were lost, have been grown into the columns. A bee, for example is critical to the continuation of flower pollination. There are about 30k bee species and their behaviors are critical for human survival. If all of the world’s bees died off, there would be major rippling effects throughout ecosystems. A number of plants, such as many of the bee orchids, are pollinated exclusively by specific bees, and they would die off without human intervention. This would alter the composition of their habitats and affect the food webs they are part of and would likely trigger additional extinctions or declines of dependent organisms. Other plants may utilize a variety of pollinators, but many are most successfully pollinated by bees. Without bees, they would set fewer seeds and would have lower reproductive success. This too would alter ecosystems. Beyond plants, many animals, such as the beautiful bee-eater birds, would lose their prey in the event of a die-off, and this would also impact natural systems and food webs. Thousands of seashells and a few toys have been grown into the bricks. These highlight the costal world and the need for continued ocean conservation.

Gatekeepers_left side view, 5ft x 4.5ft x 28inD.

Gatekeepers_right side view, 5ft x 4.5ft x 28inD

The sculpture opened at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, TN.  The piece is now part of the school’s collection and it continues its unique journey of decomposing back to the earth on the grounds outside the library of Arrowmont.   While kept inside, this mycelium created artwork would last forever, but in the open air, it will decompose.  Maria wanted the sculpture to be outside, exposed to the elements, because decomposition is part of life’s process, and as the sculpture returns to the ground, it is a reminder of how her artwork is natural, safe, and healthier for the world.   Medina-Schechter wants the world, especially younger generations to be inspired to become the next Gatekeepers of the natural world here on Earth. The next generation of gatekeepers, who will keep the promise to heal the earth and serve as stewards to protect the planet from further harm.

Integral Ecology, 10x10x1in.

In addition to her sculptural works she also forages for botanical materials to process into dyes. Her materials are informed by the middle ages scribes or illuminators of illuminated manuscripts. “When we use natural materials for dyes we are using the Earths color palette, you would never know that you can get beautiful, rich pinks and reds from an avocado seed.” She is making art the way paints were created in the Middle Ages.  Through research at Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Medina-Schechter furthered her studies of her recipes of art. Blending the natural ingredients together to create colors is a type of recipe.  There are directions to follow — you need a mordant and a base — but like a cook, there are different species that you can add to make the recipe that render each piece distinct from its original fruit or flower. From these early experiments, her paintings began to use mycelium within the pieces.  This led to her Mushroom Aquatic series that showed in Palo Alto, CA in 2023.   These paintings moved toward sculpture by turning 2D works into three dimensional environments.

Fantastic Fungi, 10x10x1in.

Dragonfly Perch, 10x10x1in.

As the mycelium emerges off the paper, they bring forth the natural world.  Her pieces are healthier for the world in many ways.   Since mycelium is a living material, it draws carbon dioxide from the air. Similar, to a plant, mycelium cleans the air as it dries. The natural materials that she uses to create her paint palettes don’t contain toxins, like acrylic and oil paint that will not decompose and will be living in a landfill if not sold. Not to mention that acrylics and oils give off plastic particles that get into your lungs and it may not be an issue now but as it collects it’s not doing anything good for your body. Many artists who worked with oils for years without respirators will later develop nerve damage later in life. These diseases increase and become or increase the ability of getting other serious nerve related diseases.

Mayan Blue, 10x10x1in.

Interior Life of a Mermaid, 24 x 36 x 3.5in.

Greta Thunberg inspired Maria to use natural paint with her calls to heal the Earth and address climate change.  Any small part she can do, contributes to climate change solutions.   But more than that, her goal is to inspire others to do the same. Change comes from the work of multitudes, and Medina-Schechter is using her artwork to motivate, to draw the next generation into the fight for a healthier world. She will say she is not a “traditional activist”. Instead, her message is in her medium and her environmental talks and introduction to earth pigments in her workshops help to educate us on a different ways of moving through the world both as creatives but also citizens. In her workshops she will introduce you to earth pigments, the history of color and using natural materials and finally mycelium as a medium, Maria says “using mycelium as a medium is a climate crises game changer” and it’s because of organizations like Ecovative who are helping to disrupt the traditional consumer pipelines and old behaviors and offer solutions for bio based packaging, clothing, and food all made from a variety of species of mushrooms. It’s their substrate of mycelium that she uses now as her main medium in both her sculptures and her paintings.

Lion’s Mane: 24 x 36 x 3.5in.

The Tribute: Deer Medicine: 22 x 15 x 16 inches

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Article by: Chris Schechter: 7 March 2024

All images copyright and courtesy of Maria Medina-Schechter

Art, Climate Change, Creativity, Nature, Sculpture