Armillaria by Roger Peet
Medium: Relief Print, Letterpressed linocut, 110 lb French Muscletone paper, Signed/numbered second edition of 25
Dimensions: 12.5 in x 18 in
Artist Statement: The largest organism in the world is a mushroom. Specifically, a honey mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae, which permeates the soil of over 2400 acres of forestland in eastern Oregon, weighing nearly 9000 pounds and estimated at about 2,300 years old. This huge organism is hard to understand as a single living entity, but that’s what it is- a creeping network of mycelial threads that winds its way through the tissues of trees and seasonally fruits masses of deep yellow mushrooms. I like to imagine it as a movement- and imagine what our movements could look like after enduring for that long. Let’s hope that we can transform the world just as thoroughly.