Stinkhorn Mushroom Print

Does this remind you of anyone you know? 😜 Another addition to my “Everything Reminds Me Of Him” series.

This is called a stinkhorn mushroom. Besides the fact that it looks like a peen, it actually has fascinating biology. You see those two balls? Their common name is “Witch’s Eggs”. Essentially, they’re the mushroom in its compressed form and where the mushrooms are birthed from. When conditions are right on the forest ground, the “skin” of the “egg” splits open at the top and out grows the stem. Google timelapses of it. It’s giving Alien.

As the stem reaches for the sky, the head is covered with a thick dark olive-colored liquid that emits a sick, corpse-like smell, attracting the flies you see in the painting. These are the spores. I’ve read that people mistake the smell thinking they’re near a dead body, only to discover it was just these mushrooms. Apparently people forage for the eggs and cook them—supposedly they’re tasty. You know me, I’d be the first in line to try them.

What's humbling about these illustrations is the reminder that there's beauty in everything, it’s all matter of perspective. The difficulty with this one was figuring out how to depict something rather grotesque, covered in flies, and trypophobia-triggering to still appear beautiful and elegant. I hope you guys enjoy this one as much as I do.