Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled LIfe (2021) was the catalyst for my pursuit of lichens. My investigation continues—more reading, time in the woods, drawing and printmaking. Online imagery has assisted, particularly www.waysofenlichenment.net.

 

I am in awe of the beauty of lichens, their antiquity, stillness, persistence, and resilience, their collaboration and convergence. Rather than being in competition and conflict, the fungi and algae “sing a metabolic ‘song’ that neither can sing in isolation”. They are a metaphor for doing together what cannot be done on our own.