Imaginary Trails

Following on from the tracing paper drawings in response to videos of mycelium growth I wondered how they would be different if I drew them from memory or from imagination. I began to imagine some of the routes I visited in Avebury on the Fungal Foraging course and where we saw the fruit bodies overground and I imagined the networks of mycelium below the ground. These were the drawings, there is clearly more of a legacy of self there, the drawings look more like me and less haphazard and chaotic. I think I like the chaotic ones better. I am beginning to wonder what other biological systems and networks I could respond to with drawn media but in flux, motion. I am wondering about critters in the ground and mapping their pathways or glow worms and their flight patterns. I love the idea that they are a bit like diagrams you might see in a natural sciences visualisation but they are spontaneous, responsive and human. They also form lines in the ‘landscape’ (ahem) that are nothing related to the geopolitical demarkations that signify agricultural growth and human dominance of place. In response to the Unit Two feedback around integrating animation into my process, inspired by Dryden’s work, I am now playing with tools to make a sort of animated flip book to see how the lines animate. It’s very basic but I like the idea…

Why have I chosen these materials, I wonder… I think the spontaneity of the idea and a break from the slow, process driven paper meant I wanted something I already had that I could just grab. I am craving colour and still thinking about Rachel Jones and her vivid paintings, which I don’t completely love but they stayed with me nevertheless. The tracing paper continues to fascinate me and I love the layering opportunities. I seem to be pinging all over the place in terms of materials but I am happy with that, on the basis that I am still ruling absolutely everything in.

This is a quick canva job on 29 drawings.

A2 tracing paper drawings with Stabilo Woody pencils - responding to memories of foraging for mushrooms and imagining the mycelium pathways.