Ann Wood has been making art for more than 40 years. After a major life event, she pivoted to making botanical and mushroom art from paper. When she started sharing her work on Instagram @Woodlucker, her community of artists and fans has grown exponentially.
In this interview, we chat about the path that brought her here, her process, the good and not-so-good aspects of social media, and her mission to have her art seen in more museums – all while supporting young artists to follow their dream.
Vivian K.:
How long have you been making mushroom art now?
Ann Wood:
Just the last couple of years. I started making a lot of other things from nature years before I started to do mushrooms.
VK:
As I understand it, you’ve always worked with your hands, doing more wood and mechanical installations on a pretty grand scale. And then you had a bit of a life changing event that sparked your path to making botanical art – something that you could really connect with.
Is that right?
AW:
Yes, I had a 4 decade career with my husband doing art shows, public art, one-of-a-kind pieces, working for brands – just more of a traditional art life experience.
At the time, my parents were going through the last years of their life, and that completely changed everything for me. My previous work was based more on my personal story. What I wanted to do because of this transition was have it be less be about me, and more about connecting out there with the world in a subject matter that was relatable to everyone. And nature, I think, provides that.
I was just starting up on Instagram and sharing some of my artwork. I could see people were working with paper, making flowers. So, I began working with paper, making feathers first and then insects. After that, I totally got into plants.
I’m a big gardener, and I have a backyard garden where I raise hundreds of types of plants and use them as models for all the botanical blooms that I make in summer. That just took off like a rocket on social media, because I think people are craving nature in a way that they might not even know. It’s a common denominator that we all share, no matter what our age, no matter who we are.
It’s in us to love the natural world. And I hope that’s what people see, that I love nature and exploring and making things that mimic the essence of life that plants have.
VK:
I love that so much, because we are a part of nature. Yet, it also seems like we’ve lost a little bit of that connection. And I think that your work really inspires us to tune back into it.
In addition to giving the viewer a sense of joy and delight by what their eyes are taking in, your art serves as a little reminder to… maybe get out there and take a little hike or to stop and smell the roses, and to slow down just a little.
VK:
I was listening to a podcast you were on, and I immediately noticed a couple of things about you. One is that you seem to be a very patient person. I also got this sense that you’re still very much in awe of nature’s beauty and of beautiful things in general. Have you always been this way, and where does that come from?
AW:
Well, I grew up on a farm in Iowa. In a very small place. There were 18 people in my graduating class. I’d never been to a museum. I didn’t know anyone who was an artist, and yet I can remember my first art experience as a very young child of 5. I made this little Cinderella TV, and I just didn’t want to stop. It was me, and I was it.
And the patience part, I think, comes from making things. There really isn’t any other experience in my life that equates to the pure joy I feel when I’m making stuff – I absolutely love it.
I grew up around my parents growing plants and having gardens. As soon as I moved out of my childhood home, I had an apartment where I built a rooftop garden and started to teach myself about all the different varieties of plants. I’d buy one of each thing and see if I could grow it.
I think that’s the thing that plants give me. It’s the mystery of how something goes from a seed, this little tiny thing, and then turns into something that’s just miraculous. That is endlessly fascinating to me – almost like magic.
And magic is around us all the time. It’s about making the decision to stop and notice. The noticing creates patience to try to mimic what it is that nature gives people.
VK:
One of the things that I really really love is that you include the root balls in some of your work!
AW:
Yes, it just becomes an exercise in curiosity. Let’s say you make a dahlia. So, I look to see what the tuber looks like by digging up the brush in my garden. It takes me anywhere from 4 days to a week to make a single thing.
So, plants are great, garden flowers are great, because they have multiple blooms that allow me to just go out and get them.
And then, I start to think about the next interesting thing that I can share or explore that keeps it from becoming stale.
VK:
Well, you are definitely keeping us on our toes with your work!
Going back to childhood for a moment. I loved your story about how your mom really nourished your creative tendencies from the start, giving you this blank slate on your bedroom walls that you liked to paint or create on every weekend.
Can you tell me how your current, more urban environment inspires your work now?
AW:
I’m working at home now. Even though I have a beautiful studio, I have found that I need a daily routine that includes exercising, making food, and gardening. I’ve got my indoor plants of orchids, that I can force-bloom in the fall and winter. So, I really do live a very plant-based life.
I start my day by watering all my plants. Right now, I’m planting seeds that will eventually go into my garden. And I live with my artwork, too. It’s surrounding us in the house. My husband’s also an artist, he makes bonsai. So, it’s not just a hobby. It is our life – that connection with the natural world.
We live in a small house, with kind of a big yard in Minneapolis. The climate here is very much based on being outside in the summer, because we don’t have a lot of summer. It’s cool here, and we don’t have plants growing visibly for probably 6 months out of the year. So, when spring rolls around, people here are really excited, and the garden centers are packed.
VK:
Would you say that all art, even the less obvious stuff (that isn’t clearly drawing from nature) is
is somehow inspired by nature?
AW:
I think that nature has a symmetry and a composition that we can’t help but draw from. Think of how our bodies are made up, for example. We tend to think about art as just about lines and color, but composition is the basis of painting and sculpture. So, the structures of nature seem to show up in everything, particularly things of beauty. And I realize ‘beauty’ could be a controversial term, but I find that I’m using it a lot more than I ever have because I think it is an honoring word towards what we could be noticing when we take a walk outdoors, like the structure of the way trees grow, and the way that plants look on the stem. That’s one of the biggest things I realized in making plants and mushrooms; the amount of textural difference in the makeup of one variety of mushroom is just mind-blowing. It’s so beautiful, that it’s profound.
VK:
Truly!
And, I didn’t realize beauty was a controversial word.
AW:
It can be seen as something too trite or too easy, but I don’t see it that way. I see it as the ultimate – the thing that inspires awe. We see this on our daily walks. All of a sudden, there’ll be a mushroom there, and that whole thing popped up in probably 36 hours.
How does that happen? I think that’s the magic that people feel about mushrooms. They’re like finding a gem. It’s a little diamond or a little sapphire just all of the sudden appearing because it rained.
VK:
Perfect segue into our next question!
What I really love about the magic of mushrooms is that we kind of think of them as these sedentary things – they just sit there.
But in so many ways, it’s actually been shown that they’re sentient. They’re always finding creative ways to survive, and to spread their spores.
I wonder if you’ve ever thought that maybe your work is another way for them to get the word out about themselves?
AW:
I think that’s one of the purposes of art. In my case, it’s to get the word out that, hey, these things are valuable to us. And to keep them in the world is a very important thing. They will exist long after we’re gone.
I love all scientific models. There’s places that have all the plants of our region blown out of glass, for example. I’m making these plants, flowers, and mushrooms that are around me and documenting them in a way that they’re not going to disappear. I have one of each of the things that grow in my garden, and I have documented them permanently. When I have them all up on a wall in my studio, and I come into my studio when it’s 20 below zero, there’s summer on the wall – which is really a lovely thing.
VK:
I understand that your foray into botanical art started for you around age 55, and I’m sure many women entering this age range are looking to make some sort of a change at a time that’s considered “later in life.”
What advice, if any, do you have for them?
AW:
When my parents were sick, I started a fashion blog, which was really a platform to support the idea that older women need to be seen online. There’s a large community of women all over the world, and that was a happy thing to do during a sad time.
Then, I thought, well, I love photography. I have a secondary degree both in art and photography. And I’d heard about Instagram and decided this fit a niche that I hadn’t explored before. I’ve always been a person who’s collected magazines. I was a huge fan of Martha Stewart Magazine and kept all those issues for years – and eventually, I made it into Martha Stewart with my paper flowers. The social media piece just clicked into place because it combined the art practice with sharing, kind of like having a journal or diary.
I’m not one to feel afraid about trying anything (new) with art. I can meet the president of the United States and tell him about my art because I feel like I own it. This is what I am, and how can I be wrong with what I am?
VK:
Ohh, beautifully said – just be yourself! Then, there’s nothing to pretend or be nervous or afraid about.
AW:
Society puts so much attention on how women look, but for me, I’m not looking for feedback on my physical appearance. When I put my art out, it is about what my hands do. It’s not about me, but it’s about this thing that now has its own life. So I don’t feel a lot less pressure.
VK:
Yes, as a native Angeleno, I’m very aware of those pressures!
But it’s also a global thing. I think women are really unfairly judged – and especially after a certain age.
VK:
I know you’re growing some mushrooms and flowers at home. Are you growing anything edible?
AW:
No, I like to shop for my groceries. I’ve made about 30 pieces of paper food, from peas to watermelon. So, when I go shopping, I’m also looking at details in that peach – like how soft and fuzzy that peach is. What kind of paper would that translate to?
But I would love to have a larger piece of land to raise food and flowers someday.
It takes a lot of time to have this kind of lifestyle where you really are watching it, because in Minneapolis, we can have 105 degrees in the summer, or 20 below zero in the winter.
VK:
Does creativity run in your family? I’m referring to any type of creativity? Like, did your parents maybe build their own home? Were they creative in their farming?
AW:
In fact, my dad did build our family home! He was also creative in his farming, and my mom was a teacher.
I was very involved in 4H as a kid. It was kind of like the Girl Scouts, but it was more rural-based. We would have gardening projects. All the club members got to visit each other’s farms to see what they had growing, and we would bring what we grew to the county fair and compete for ribbons.
I also did a lot of sewing. That was probably my first three dimensional exploration. My mom did not know how to sew, but she found me a neighbor woman who taught me how to thread the machine, and then I got really good at it. Actually, women couldn’t believe that I was really sewing, but I was doing hand tailoring as a teenager. Anything that was three dimensional with texture that you put together – that’s always been my thing.
VK:
So, is there anything you do to prepare your environment before you sit down to a day of work? Are you lighting candles? Are you putting on any type music that perhaps helps inspire your work?
AW:
Yes, first, I like to work in a very clean space. People on social media like to give me a hard time. They say, “I’ve never seen such a clean studio”. And that’s because I need it that way in order to think.
So, I start off by deciding what I’m interested in making. And then I clean my whole desk, and the whole room – I like start fresh. I always light a candle when I work, and I listen to audiobooks. Otherwise, I try to stay really focused on the nuance of what I’m trying to make.
VK:
I’ve heard you say that you knew that you wanted to be an artist around 5 or 6 years old.
Did you envision what that might look like, or see any detail in this future you had in mind as a child?
And how does it feel to realize that dream and to be appreciated for your work?
AW:
I remember watching Mary Tyler Moore on TV as a young person, and deciding I wanted an apartment in the big city. That’s the biggest clue I had.
I actually did not take any art classes in high school. I wasn’t clicking with the art teacher of this very small school, and I saw a catalog for the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. My parents thought that it was too much for me to move from our tiny town to the city, so I studied photography first and found that I was most interested in building the sets for the photographs.
After that, I went to art school. It’s been a step-by-step process. So, I don’t know that I had a specific vision. I just knew I didn’t want a regular job. I’ve never been really good at having a job where I wasn’t the commander of my own ship.
As far as seeing people appreciate my art, it’s wonderful to be part of this supportive global community. I feel very appreciated by my Instagram community. It’s been a lovely thing that I didn’t really know that I’d connect so strongly with. I like seeing my own incremental changes reflected in the creative lives of other artists. It’s really exciting to witness the paths of other artists – what led to that other new thing they’re trying next.
VK:
So, your art is currently not for sale. You’re doing museum work at the moment?
AW:
That’s right. During the pandemic, I had my botanical art at a museum in the Netherlands, in the Hague.
I’m working now on being purely creative, which is a luxury I haven’t had until recently – to be able to focus on my ultimate creative vision. I get to wake up every morning, figure out what I’m gonna make and experiment with it. Then, I send it out into the world and see what people think.
VK:
I know you’re a big fan of glass-blown flowers… and I want to know if you ever made it to see the glass flowers at Harvard.
AW:
No, I have not yet. I have seen the ones that are at the Chicago Natural History Museum, which I think are very similar. I’ve seen pictures of the ones at Harvard, but that is definitely on my list, because my husband and I love to travel to see art and to talk about it together.
VK:
I just love how meaningfully you engage with your Instagram family, practically responding to each and every comment you receive. Have you developed any substantive relationships this way?
AW:
Oh, definitely, I’d say I have a group of people that I feel really close to, because I see their posts every day. Many of them, I’ve met in person. A lot of people come through Minneapolis, and they’ll visit my studio.
It’s a lot of work for me, but I also feel strongly about democratizing art. I want to feel that I can give back to people who are at the beginning of their path, like many people gave to me when I was first starting. Looking at their work and saying something kind is sometimes all it takes to light a fire in someone. It’s made a difference in my life, so I hope I can give that back – especially to younger ladies.
Also, you hear everything when you do art shows. I don’t make art to hide it away, and never show it to anybody. There’s a circle of joy that starts with, “What am I gonna make, and how”? Then, I put it out in the world, and that interaction with people completes the circle.
VK:
Do people’s opinions about your art affect you, at all?
AW:
I do believe that my art isn’t for everyone.
But recently, I had a reel that got 15 million views, and that was shocking. That led to many people requesting tutorials from me. I have nothing against tutorials, but what I do is pretty hard to simplify down into a tutorial. And some people got really offended by that. I actually could not believe some of the things people said on my post. But if you get the attention of 15 million people, you open yourself up to all kinds of feedback.
The good news is that 99% of what I see is positive, and that lets me know that I need to keep going down this path.
VK:
I would love to know if there’s anything you’re working on at the moment that you want to share with our readers?
AW:
Yes, people can check out my Instagram account, because that’s the place I share my work. So, if you’re interested in what a single person, who’s totally a one-person show, wants to make out of paper and plants, that’s the place to go.
VK:
Amazing. Thank you so very much. This has been an absolute pleasure – you are just delightful.
AW:
Thank you, I’ve absolutely enjoyed speaking with you. Bye bye!
