LAETIPORUS Photo Assemblage

In celebration of my friend Melanie's 50th birthday, I created a photo assemblage using photographic images from time spent at the cabin she and her wife own in northwestern Minnesota.

This video is an assemblage of a images of a woman holding a mushroom, lakes, old barns, and other lake scenes presented on a gallery board in a collage like assemblage. The materials used werevideo stills, photographs, images on paper and transparencies — LAETIPORUS, 2024: video stills, photographs, images on paper and transparencies

During the weekend, Mel discovered a "chicken of the woods" mushroom at the base of the tree trunk on the lakeshore outside the cabin. The Latin name is Laetiporus, meaning, “with bright yellow pores.”

I took a short video of Mel holding the mushroom and explaining how delicious it is sauteed with a bit of oil and garlic. (She wasn't exaggerating. It was divine.)

Mel holding the Chicken in the Woods or LAETIPORUS mushroom

As I started working on this project, it was clear to me that this image of Mel holding this magnificent mushroom would be central to the narrative. You see, Mel and mushrooms have similar qualities.

Mushrooms translate information underground across thread-like filaments through electrical impulses. They flourish in mutualistic relationships with plants, where they exchange sugar for nutrients for growth and sustainability. They are intelligent beings that nurture life through alchemy.

Mel uses a similar alchemical process in communicating with humans both in her real life relationships and through her writing. She absorbs and transforms. She shares information across the expanses. She creates mutual relationships and shares stories that are nourishing, grounding, sustainable, and transcendent.

Photo of woman holding mushroom on top of a larger image of an old barn, — Photograph of four layered images from the larger assemblage.

LAETIPORUS contains approximately 30 image components. The images echo each other, taking shape across a variety of papers and transparencies. During the process I modified image tone, played with scale, and layering as a way to create dimension and texture.

The components can be rearranged in endless ways, each new arrangement reminds us of the beauty in being able to hold the multiplicity of life, to embrace difference, to evolve, to take new shapes. I find this idea inspiring and deeply moving.

The video below captures the visual layout I chose to include as documentation for the project, but off camera, I arranged the images in other ways,

I packaged LAETIPORUS components into a 13x19 photo paper box, covered with kraft paper and the central image, scaled large.

Happy birthday, Mel.