Ecological preservation meets art Madge Evers preserves the fungi-filled woods of Massachusetts through cyanoprints and spore prints. Her art visualizes the decomposition and regeneration processes of nature that often go unnoticed and unappreciated by human eyes. shroomer’s Vivian Kanchian sat down with Madge to chat about nature, art, rediscovering passions, and the relationship between plants and fungi. I heartily recommend reading through the full chat with Madge Evers, and here are just a few reasons why… Organic art forms “When I started making art again [after a long hiatus] it just happened organically. I was gardening, which I think is a creative process. And when I began spore printing, it kind of blew my mind. All these connections from the past just began firing away. So, I pursued it. It was like the mycelium re-ignited that creativity that had been lying dormant.” Spore printing process “The spore print is a really straightforward process, which is as simple as putting mushrooms on top of black paper over a period of about 6-10 hours, and then the mushrooms release their spores. And I just kind of catch them onto the paper. It’s really not hard. So, you may do this at home for sure.” Sunlight prints “Cyanotypes [are] an alternative photographic process where you coat paper with a light-sensitive solution, and then expose it to ultraviolet light. I like to expose it to sunlight, and I can do it in the window during winter. It just makes the process longer.” Bioluminescent spores “I have some mushrooms that I really love to collaborate with, and that seem to want to express something. Jack-’o-lantern mushrooms are amazing. They’re a little harder to come by where I live … they’re very prolific with spore production, and the spores are bioluminescent. Not that that really shows up in the work, but it lends the work a special quality so I love them. They just end up being really textural and thick and wonderful.”