Andreya Marks writes, “It was during a rainy January 1977, when I saw mushrooms sprouting all around my house and my German appetite for wild mushrooms was re-awakened in California.
“I signed up at the Mendocino Art Center for a class in “Mushroom Dyeing” with Miriam C Rice, hoping she would lead us on mushroom identifying walks through the Mendocino forest. But no edible ‘shrooms were on the menu, rather indigestible dye mushrooms were cooking in the pots. You can imagine how disappointed I was, but as a good Buddhist, I didn’t quit rather stayed flexible and curious. That wasn’t what I was looking for but as so often in life, one path leads us into a new direction, and my love for mushroom dyeing was born. My graphic artist turned fiber artist.
“Having grown up with my grandmother, I quickly adopted Miriam as a replacement and she must have needed a “daughter” close by at that space in time. She was open hearted, open minded, inspired and inspiring and we were both ‘on fire’ about finding color in mushrooms. She was designing a book with Lolli Jacobsen in her apprentice ship program at the MAC, and another with Dorothy Beebee’s exquisite mushroom drawings, and I was tending my little children, taking uncounted walks into the forest, having dye pots bubbling every winter in my studio in Elk.
“Tapestries and rugs with hand spun, mushroom dyed wool were emerging and soon I was painting with mushroom pigments, printing on mushroom paper, teaching dyeing shibori dyed silks scarves, writing articles in Japanese, German and Us fiber magazines and teaching mask making with mushroom pulp. These little fruits of the woods led me around the world all the way “down under” to Australia.
“I felt truly initiated into the world of international Symposia when Miriam told me to teach the dye class to 120 attendees while she was teaching newly found paper making with Polypores in 1988 in Albion, California.
“With great pride and tears of sadness, I concluded my mushroom dye era, after 30 years, back in Mendocino at the 13th International Fungi and Fiber Symposium and exhibition in 2007.
“Thank you Miriam for being the trail blazer to a large inspired mushroom dye community world wide.”
