Hiking through the woods can be tough, depending on the intensity of the trail. Sometimes, a break up in the hard work by a peaceful babbling brook or the relief of a view from the clearing on a ridge is just what you need to have a positive attitude to keep going. Mushrooms can have that affect as well, randomly poking their head out of the most unusual places. Pretty and white, so fragile and vulnerable as they cling to anything moist like a pad of wet leaves or a dead tree trunk.
Mushroom carvings by Corey Corcoran take us to a dream land full of mysterious images. He uses Artist Conk (Ganoderma applanatum) as his canvas, a fungus that grows in a shelf like form on the side of hardwood usually near streams. Lots of swirly lines surround human faces and hands, covered with nature’s inhabitants from bugs to plants. There are mouths blowing out clouds or butterflies and feet ushering curious adventures into mossy lands.