ART :: LOVE :: LIFE :: ART :: LOVE :: LIFE :: ART :: LOVE :: LIFE
In 2005 Gene Tepper remembered his lifelong friend, Ray Rice, in a series of vignettes: Zoot Suit; Elkhart, Indiana; New York 1940; New Orleans 1941; New York 1945; Lucky Road. Zoot Suit Some of the details of our first meeting are a bit hazy, but not so, the crystal clear image of Ray rising […]
WEB Miriam C. Rice on Wikipedia International Mushroom Dye Institute (IMDI) website The complete history of the IMDI founded in 1985 by Miriam and colleagues, along with examples of the products of Miriam’s research. BOOKS Miriam C. Rice, “Let’s Try Mushrooms for Color”, Thresh Publications, Santa Rosa, CA. 1974 Miriam C, Rice, “Mushrooms for Color”, […]
This article started out as “Mush-roaming with Miriam” , but to get a different perspective on our long journey together, I began to reread some of the many letters that she had written to me over the years……. The earliest ”correspondence” that I could find from her was a hastily scribbled phone message in pencil […]
Once the mushroom pigment is isolated in dry powder form or suspended in water, it may be made into balls, cakes, pastels, chalks, oil or water based paints, casein inks, or encaustic. Miriam developed and explored these mediums to create art works, such as her wood block prints. Here are pigment examples from the book, Mushrooms for […]
After extracting the pigment from a burbling pot of mushrooms, Miriam experimented with using the remaining pulp to form sheets of paper and other shapes. In 1993 she made the short video, Mushrooms for Paper: Papermaking with Polypores, a step-by-step guide through how to make paper with mushrooms, which is available here. More information on this […]
Miriam’s work with image-making extended into wood block prints. The relationship between these prints and her batiks, is very strong. Both mediums explore positive and negative space in bold, raw images featuring women and children.
People cannot live without art, nor can they pursue art without life. Without life’s muses, an artist becomes a soul lost in a vacuum, aimless, barely moving. To fuse art, love, and life, to give oneself to the infinities of all three, is to begin a new journey, a path nearly unbeaten. To an adventurous […]
Miriam’s investigations into the possibilities presented by mushroom pigments led her to make crayons for drawing, or Myco-Stix™. The process of by combining beeswax and mushroom pigment in powder form is covered in detail, along with examples of drawings made with them, in Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ by Miriam C. Rice.
Mushrooms for Dyes, Paper, Pigments & Myco-Stix™ Back by popular demand! This book details the history, development, and science of mushroom arts. It both tells and shows how to extract substances from mushrooms that allow an artist to make textile dyes, paper sculpture or plain paper, watercolors and crayons for drawing. Beebee’s pen and ink […]
This excerpt from Miriam’s 1988 video, Mushrooms for Color: Dyeing with Fungi, gives a very good picture of her original research into the extraction of pigments from mushrooms to dye protein-based fibers for use in textiles. The full video, along with Mushrooms for Paper: Papermaking with Polypores, is streaming here free of charge. Miriam Rice’s […]