The Pileus Madonna

23.6" x 23.6"/60 x 60cm

Oil on aluminium panel

2022

Available at Sol Art Gallery

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This piece is about the importance of fungi in the functioning of our world. Fungi are not just the suppliers of microbes, such as yeast, that allow us to make bread, beer, and wine, they are essential in the breakdown of dead matter, which allows new life to spring forth. Without fungi, we would be buried under mountains of dead matter. We need to protect them, by maintaining good soil health. In this piece, shaggy ink caps spring from the jawbones of a sheep and give rise to vetch plants. Vetch are some of the most beautiful roadside plants you will see. A delicate cornflower blue. There are also puffballs, which look like faces with gaping mouths when they break open. Both of these fungi are edible. The psylocybe on the wood are magic mushrooms, which have been found to help people with PTSD. The halo around Ada's head is the underside of a death cap mushroom — the most poisonous mushroom in the world. Fungi are a complicated story of benefit and danger.