From the Woods

Holly Downing

Chanterelles freshly gathered from the woods are displayed to show their elegant, irregular forms, their forked gills exposed beneath ruffled edges. The chanterelle mushroom is coveted as a culinary delicacy, but it is the process of locating the fungi that is part of its lore. Each variety of chanterelle requires a coinciding tree (for instance, in California it is often found on the coast live oak), and weather conditions are key, making them seasonal, as with fruit. In California, they are at their peak in November and April. As well, there are many imposter genuses that appear nearly identical, yet lack the flavor. In Holly Downing’s “From the Woods,” she has portrayed the coy fungi as a still life, harboring as much beauty as a rose.

Mezzotint is a form of engraving, whose subtle qualities are achieved with tone rather than line. The artist spends many hours “rocking” a copper plate until the plate has thousands of tiny holes, each with a bit of raised burr that hold a tremendous amount of ink. A fully rocked plate prints a lush, velvety black, unparalleled in any other medium. To obtain an image, the artist scrapes the surface of the plate, variously lowering the levels of the burrs so they will hold less ink and thereby yield gradations of dark and light. Gradually an image emerges out of the darkness. The plate is inked by hand and printed on an etching press.